Raman and AFM Integrated Stem Cell Exploration of Differentiation

Project Information

RAISED

Grant agreement ID: 660757

DOI 10.3030/660757

Project closed

EC signature date 9 April 2015

Start date 15 May 2015

End date 14 May 2017

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost € 195 454,80

EU contribution € 195 454,80

Coordinated by

IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
United Kingdom

Objective

The control of stem cell fate via external stimulation (ES) is a vital contribution to the advancement of tissue engineering (TE) for regenerative medicine (RM). In this project we propose a highly sensitive real-time characterisation of stem cells during applied ES in order to fully understand and elucidate cellular mechanisms during differentiation. This will be achieved using three major vectors of research; new conductive polymer (CP) materials for the ES of stem cells, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Raman microspectroscopy (RMS) live cell phenotyping.
Real-time characterisation using AFM can directly measure single cell elasticity changes from differentiation mechanics such as reorganisation of the cytoskeleton. RMS of living cells can determine the progression of differentiation through changes in biomolecular composition. The combination of these two techniques will provide significantly improved single stem cell characterisation over current techniques, and is fast, non-invasive, and non-destructive.
The differentiation of the stem cells will be driven by external electrical and mechanical stimulation delivered by new CP materials. Control of the ES coupled with the real time characterisation of cells will bring about new understanding of how this ES influences the differentiation of stem cells into the desired phenotype. Improved stem cell differentiation will further refine our knowledge in the TE field, and producing specifically fated cell phenotypes will improve the clinical application of TE for generating new tissues for applications such as cardiac, wound, or bone repair.

Fields of science

• medical and health sciences › medical biotechnology › tissue engineering
• natural sciences › chemical sciences › polymer sciences
• natural sciences › physical sciences › optics › microscopy
• medical and health sciences › medical biotechnology › cells technologies › stem cells
• engineering and technology › industrial biotechnology › biomaterials

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme
• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2014-EF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF)

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2014

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Coordinator

IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE

• Net EU contribution: € 195 454,80
• Address: SOUTH KENSINGTON CAMPUS EXHIBITION ROAD ; SW7 2AZ LONDON ; United Kingdom
• Region: London › Inner London — West › Westminster
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: € 195 454,80