Primary adipocytes as targetable drug depot to prevent post-surgical cancer recurrence.

Surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy remains the mainstream treatment for breast cancer in the clinic. However, cancer recurrence post surgery is still common. In view of the clinical practice that autologous fat tissue grafting is often used to facilitate breast reconstruction after lumpectomy, here we develop an targetable adipocyte-based drug depot for the prevention of post-surgical cancer recurrence.

Metabolic tagging of extracellular vesicles and development of enhanced extracellular vesicle based cancer vaccines.

As key mediators of cellular communication, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been actively explored for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. However, effective methods to functionalize EVs and modulate the interaction between EVs and recipient cells are still lacking. Here we report a facile and universal metabolic tagging technology that can install unique chemical tags (e.

Bio-adhesive Macroporous Hydrogels for In Situ Recruitment and Modulation of Dendritic Cells.

Introduction: Biomaterials that enable in situ recruitment and modulation of immune cells have demonstrated tremendous promise for developing potent cancer immunotherapy such as therapeutic cancer vaccine. One challenge related to biomaterial scaffold-based cancer vaccines is the development of macroporous materials that are biocompatible and stable, enable controlled release of chemokines to actively recruit a large number of dendritic cells (DCs), contain macropores that are large enough to home the recruited DCs, and support the survival and proliferation of DCs.

Methods: Bio-adhesive macroporous gelatin hydrogels were synthesized and characterized for mechanical properties, porous structure, and adhesion towards tissues.

Metabolic glycan labeling immobilizes dendritic cell membrane and enhances antitumor efficacy of dendritic cell vaccine.

Dendritic cell (DC) vaccine was among the first FDA-approved cancer immunotherapies, but has been limited by the modest cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response and therapeutic efficacy. Here we report a facile metabolic labeling approach that enables targeted modulation of adoptively transferred DCs for developing enhanced DC vaccines. We show that metabolic glycan labeling can reduce the membrane mobility of DCs, which activates DCs and improves the antigen presentation and subsequent T cell priming property of DCs.

A smart coating with integrated physical antimicrobial and strain-mapping functionalities for orthopedic implants.

The prevalence of orthopedic implants is increasing with an aging population. These patients are vulnerable to risks from periprosthetic infections and instrument failures. Here, we present a dual-functional smart polymer foil coating compatible with commercial orthopedic implants to address both septic and aseptic failures.

T cell-responsive macroporous hydrogels for in situ T cell expansion and enhanced antitumor efficacy.

Adoptive T cell therapy has demonstrated great promise for treating cancer and other diseases. While extensive effort has been made to improve ex vivo expansion of T cells, strategies for maintaining the proliferation and function of T cells post adoptive transfer are still lacking. Here we report an injectable T cell-responsive macroporous hydrogel that enables in situ activation and expansion of T cells.

Targeted delivery of liposomal chemoimmunotherapy for cancer treatment.

Chemoimmunotherapy that utilizes the immunomodulatory effect of chemotherapeutics has shown great promise for treating poorly immunogenic solid tumors. However, there remains a significant room for improving the synergy between chemotherapy and immunotherapy, including the efficient, concurrent delivery of chemotherapeutics and immunomodulators into tumors. Here, we report the use of metabolic glycan labeling to facilitate cancer-targeted delivery of liposomal chemoimmunotherapy.

Dendritic Cell Recruitment and T Cell Activation for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy has shifted the paradigm for cancer treatment in the past decade, but new immunotherapies enabling the effective treatment of solid tumors are still greatly demanded. Here we report a pore-forming hydrogel-based immunotherapy that enables simultaneous recruitment of dendritic cells and activation of T cells, for reshaping the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and amplifying cytotoxic T lymphocyte response. The injectable pore-forming hydrogel composed of porogen-dispersed alginate network can form a macroporous structure upon injection into mice, and enables controlled release of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a chemoattractant for recruiting dendritic cells, and epacadostat, an inhibitor of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase for activating T cells.

A double crosslinking adhesion mechanism for developing tough hydrogel adhesives.

Tough hydrogel adhesives that consist of a robust gel network and can strongly adhere to wet tissues have shown great promise as the next generation of bioadhesives. While a variety of chemistries can be utilized to construct the tough gel network, the covalent conjugation methods for tissue adhesion are still limited. Here we report, for the first time, the use of side product-free amine-thiolactone chemistry which initiates a double crosslinking adhesion mechanism to develop tough gel adhesives.

Recyclable cell-surface chemical tags for repetitive cancer targeting.

Metabolic glycan labeling provides a facile yet powerful tool to install chemical tags to the cell membrane via metabolic glycoengineering processes of unnatural sugars. These cell-surface chemical tags can then mediate targeted conjugation of therapeutic agents via efficient chemistries, which has been extensively explored for cancer-targeted treatment. However, the commonly used in vivo chemistries such as azide-cyclooctyne and tetrazine-cyclooctene chemistries only allow for one-time use of cell-surface chemical tags, posing a challenge for long-term, continuous cell targeting.

A Sensor Array for the Nanomolar Detection of Azo Dyes in Water.

Azo dyes are ubiquitous pollutants that contaminate water supplies and threaten human, biota, and ecosystem health. Their detection and discrimination are a considerable challenge owing to the numerous structural, chemical, and optical similarities between dyes, complexity of the wastewater in which they are found, and low environmental concentrations. Here, we demonstrate that the inner filter effect (IFE), in combination with conjugated polymer array-based sensing, offers a rapid approach for the quantitative profiling of these pollutants.