Under the leadership of regenerative medicine expert Chandan Sen, PhD, a non-invasive, nanochip device using a technology called tissue nanotransfection (TNT) has been developed to reprogram one type of tissue into another with a simple touch and an electric field harmless to the body. The technology has two major components: First, a nanotechnology-based chip hardware is designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live body. Second, the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion allows the cargo, when delivered using nanotechnology-based chip hardware, to convert an adult cell from one type to another.
Tissue nanotransfection is non-invasive, does not require any laboratory-based procedures, and may be implemented at the point of care. In less than a second, the nanochip can deliver treatment at the injury site and convert skills to vasculogenic cells.
This technology avoids the use of stem cells and is simple to use. Tissue nanotransfection has been licensed with the ultimate goal of enabling skin and other tissue to be converted to tissue types necessary for therapy. These potential therapies include healing burns, reducing diabetic complications, treating injured soldiers, and re-growing damaged and diseased tissue.
Dr. Sen and his team of interdisciplinary experts continue to develop and innovate this first-of-its-kind technology at the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering.