Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have been widely studied in regenerative medicine, pathology modeling, and drug screening. Stable mass culture of iPS cells is essential for these applications. iPS cells can spontaneously differentiate into other cells during culture, and removal of these differentiated cells is necessary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEngineered three-dimensional models of neuromuscular tissues are promising for use in mimicking their disorder states in vitro. Although several models have been developed, it is still challenging to mimic the physically separated structures of motor neurons (MNs) and skeletal muscle (SkM) fibers in the motor units in vivo. In this study, we aimed to develop microdevices for precisely compartmentalized coculturing of MNs and engineered SkM tissues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids
June 2021
Nucleic acids in body fluids, such as circulating cell-free nucleic acids, viral DNA, and RNA have received much attention for their great potential as biomarkers in liquid biopsies of serious diseases. Although quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) has been traditionally used as a laboratory-based assay for measuring nucleic acids, there is a strong demand for techniques to qualitatively, rapidly, and simply measure the extremely low-abundance nucleic acids in order to realize the nucleic acid-based liquid biopsies. With this aim in mind, we developed a simple and highly sensitive sandwich-type assay for nucleic acids using a combination of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), which enhances Raman scattering by 10- to 10-fold, and bioorthogonal Raman tags, which generate signals in the biologically silent region (1800-2800 cm).
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