Materials and devices containing hydrogel-encapsulated cells
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsTimothy Kuan-Ta Lu, Xinyue Liu, Tzu-Chieh Tang, Eléonore Claire Tham, Xuanhe Zhao
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Abstract
Provided herein, in some embodiments, are hydrogel-elastomer and hydrogel-alginate devices, compositions and associated methods to encapsulate living cells.
Claims145
A wearable device comprising a hydrogel-elastomer composition encapsulating a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest.
A skin patch, comprising a first layer comprising a hydrogel containing genetically-engineered cells and a second layer comprising an elastomer.
A biosensing glove having fingertips that comprise a hydrogel-elastomer composition encapsulating a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest.
A hydrogel-elastomer composition encapsulating a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest.
A method, comprising:
- (a) contacting a hydrogel-elastomer composition with a solution containing cell nutrients to produce a nutrient-infused hydrogel-elastomer composition;
- and
- (b) introducing a population of genetically-engineered cells into the nutrient-infused hydrogel-elastomer composition to produce genetically-engineered cells encapsulated by the nutrient-infused hydrogel, wherein the genetically-engineered cells comprise a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest.
A hydrogel-alginate capsule comprising a hydrogel shell and an alginate core containing a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest.
A system comprising:
- (a) a first population of hydrogel-alginate capsules comprising (i) a hydrogel shell and (ii) an alginate core containing a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise a first inducible promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a first product of interest;
- and
- (b) a second population of hydrogel-alginate capsules comprising (i) a hydrogel shell and (ii) an alginate core containing a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise a second inducible promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a second product of interest, wherein activity of the second inducible promoter is modulated by the first product of interest.
A composition comprising:
- (a) an environmental sample comprising at least one contaminant, and
- (b) a hydrogel-alginate capsule comprising a hydrogel shell and an alginate core containing a population of genetically-engineered cells that comprise an inducible promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest, wherein activity of the inducible promoter is modulated by the at least one contaminant.
A method comprising:
- (a) combining a culture of genetically-engineered cells with alginate to produce droplets;
- (b) crosslinking the droplets with calcium ions to form spheres containing the genetically-engineered cells;
- and
- (c) encapsulating the spheres with a hydrogel to form a capsule, wherein the genetically-engineered cells comprise a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid encoding a product of interest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.