Engineered red blood cells and their applications

The humble red blood cell (RBC) is the most abundant cell in the human body. Every second, a normal adult generates some 2.5 million RBCs, which subsequently circulate through the blood vessels for a lifespan of 50 or 120 days in mouse and human, respectively. RBCs are also unique in that they are completely enucleated once fully mature. These two characteristics exist as distinct assets for cellular therapy applications utilizing RBCs as a platform, enabling long-lasting availability in vivo and the ability to genetically modify precursor cells without worry of the terminally differentiated progeny carrying any foreign genetic material. The first part of this thesis is devoted to the establishment of methodologies that allow for the covalent attachment of both natural and synthetic cargoes to the surface of red blood cells without compromising its biological properties. This system employs genetic engineering and sortase A, a bacterial transpeptidases.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Pishesha, Novalia.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Harvey F. Lodish and Hidde L. Ploegh.

• Biological Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122831

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122831