$1,469,606
Engineering Monocytes to Treat Ectopic Calcification
University of Washington
Focus: To develop technologies for local human cell therapies that can inhibit and regress tissue calcification.
Ectopic calcification, or calcification of soft tissues, occurs in a variety of diseases and injuries and is especially harmful to the mechanical functions of joints, valves, blood vessels and muscles. There is currently no treatment for this condition. The investigators will seek to control ectopic calcification by halting mineral deposition and encouraging mineral re-absorption. The research team will use gene and protein delivery techniques to promote anti-calcification molecule release at sites of ectopic calcification. This project seeks to prolong the life of bioprosthetic devices like heart valves that are prone to early calcification and failure, and to provide a therapy to deter secondary calcification that can develop in certain conditions such as injury and burns. A treatment to prevent ectopic calcification would have substantial health, quality of life, productivity and economic benefits for the many Washingtonians afflicted by this problem. The local human cell therapy technologies being developed by this research team will also increase Washington State's competitiveness in the area of cell therapy.
Organizations collaborating in this research are: University of Washington.
Grant Update
“We are optimizing two new cellular bioengineering techniques that will further our goal of developing a novel cell therapy to locally treat ectopic calcification. One approach involves non-viral gene delivery of anticalcific proteins, and the other involves receptor engineering to facilitate differentiation of bone resorbing cells.”
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