Designing Magnetically Responsive Biohybrids Composed of Cord Blood-Derived Natural Killer Cells and Iron Oxide Nanoparticles.

We report the generation of magnetically responsive, cord blood-derived natural killer (NK) cells using iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). NK cells are a promising immune cell population for cancer cell therapy as they can target and lyse target tumor cells without prior education. However, NK cells cannot home to disease sites based on antigen recognition, instead relying primarily on external stimuli and chemotactic gradients for transport.

Rapid Generation and Detection of Biomimetic Oxygen Concentration Gradients In Vitro.

Hypoxic regions exist within most solid tumors and often lead to altered cellular metabolism, metastasis, and drug resistance. Reliable generation and detection of biomimetic gaseous gradients in vitro is challenging due to low spatiotemporal resolution and poor longevity of gradients utilizing microfluidic techniques. Here, we present a novel and simplistic approach for producing gradients of dissolved oxygen (DO) within a lab-on-a-chip platform.