We demonstrate that Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) enables monitoring of cellular grafts with high contrast, sensitivity, and quantitativeness. MPI directly detects the intense magnetization of iron-oxide tracers using low-frequency magnetic fields. MPI is safe, noninvasive and offers superb sensitivity, with great promise for clinical translation and quantitative single-cell tracking. Here we report the first MPI cell tracking study, showing 200-cell detection in vitro and in vivo monitoring of human neural graft clearance over 87 days in rat brain.

Targeted genome editing in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) is an attractive strategy for treating immunohematological diseases. However, the limited efficiency of homology-directed editing in primitive HSPCs constrains the yield of corrected cells and might affect the feasibility and safety of clinical translation. These concerns need to be addressed in stringent preclinical models and overcome by developing more efficient editing methods. We generated a humanized X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1) mouse model and evaluated the efficacy and safety of hematopoietic reconstitution from limited input of functional HSPCs, establishing thresholds for full correction upon different types of conditioning. Unexpectedly, conditioning before HSPC infusion was required to protect the mice from lymphoma developing when transplanting small numbers of progenitors. We then designed a one-size-fits-all (interleukin-2 receptor common γ-chain) gene correction strategy and, using the same reagents suitable for correction of human HSPC, validated the edited human gene in the disease model in vivo, providing evidence of targeted gene editing in mouse HSPCs and demonstrating the functionality of the-edited lymphoid progeny. Finally, we optimized editing reagents and protocol for human HSPCs and attained the threshold of editing in long-term repopulating cells predicted to safely rescue the disease, using clinically relevant HSPC sources and highly specific zinc finger nucleases or CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9). Overall, our work establishes the rationale and guiding principles for clinical translation of SCID-X1 gene editing and provides a framework for developing gene correction for other diseases.

Neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus involves activation of quiescent neural stem cells (NSCs) to yield transiently amplifying NSCs and progenitors, and ultimately neurons that affect learning and memory. This process is tightly controlled by microenvironmental cues, though few endogenous factors are known to regulate neuronal differentiation. While astrocytes have been implicated, their role in juxtacrine (i.e. cell-cell contact-dependent) signaling within NSC niches has not been investigated. We show that ephrin-B2 presented from rodent hippocampal astrocytes regulates neurogenesis in vivo. Furthermore, clonal analysis in NSC fate-mapping studies reveals a novel role for ephrin-B2 in instructing neuronal differentiation. Additionally, ephrin-B2 signaling, transduced by EphB4 receptors on NSCs, activates β-catenin in vitro and in vivo independent of Wnt signaling and upregulates proneural transcription factors. Ephrin-B2+ astrocytes thus promote neuronal differentiation of adult NSCs through juxtacrine signaling, findings that advance our understanding of adult neurogenesis and may have future regenerative medicine implications.

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There is broad interest in designing nanostructured materials that can interact with cells and regulate key downstream functions1–7. In particular, materials with nanoscale features may enable control over multivalent interactions, which involve the simultaneous binding of multiple ligands on one entity to multiple receptors on another and are ubiquitous throughout biology8–10. Cellular signal transduction of growth factor and morphogen cues that play critical roles in regulating cell function and fate often begins with such multivalent binding of ligands, either secreted or cell-surface tethered, to target cell receptors, leading to receptor clustering11–18. Cellular mechanisms that orchestrate ligand-receptor oligomerisation are complex, however, and the capacity to control multivalent interactions and thereby modulate key signaling events within living systems is therefore currently very limited. Here we demonstrate the design of potent multivalent conjugates that can organise stem cell receptors into nanoscale clusters and control stem cell behaviour in vitro and in vivo. The ectodomain of ephrin-B2, normally an integral membrane protein ligand, was conjugated to a soluble biopolymer to yield multivalent nanoscale conjugates that potently induced signaling in neural stem cells and promoted their neuronal differentiation both in culture and within the brain. Super-resolution microscopy analysis yielded insights into the organisation of receptor-ligand clusters at the nanoscale. We also found that synthetic multivalent conjugates of ephrin-B1 strongly enhanced human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell differentiation into functional dopaminergic neurons. Multivalent bioconjugates thus represent powerful tools and potential nanoscale therapeutics for controlling the behaviour of target stem cells in vitro and in vivo.