This award is funded jointly by the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems and the Biomaterials Program in the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation.
Despite tremendous research efforts, there are no therapies in the clinic for repair after injury to the spinal cord, in part due to inhibitory proteoglycans that play a key role in limiting regeneration in the central nervous system. Thus, the specific goal of the proposed project is to develop therapeutic systems to decrease the negative effects of inhibitory proteoglycans and to subsequently enhance axon regeneration. To this end, novel aptamer antagonists against protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP)-sigma, a receptor for inhibitory proteoglycans in the adult mammalian CNS, will be developed. Another exciting component of the proposed research involves a novel use of biomaterials for sustained delivery of biomolecules in animals. Sustained release of aptamers to the injured spinal cord will be achieved via microparticle/hydrogel composites using oligonucleotide hybridization. This project is truly interdisciplinary research at the forefront of tissue engineering, nucleic acid biotechnology and neuroscience.
