We report the design of surfaces that exhibit dynamic changes in interfacial properties, such as wettability, in response to an electrical potential. The change in wetting behavior was caused by surface-confined, single-layered molecules undergoing conformational transitions between a hydrophilic and a moderately hydrophobic state. Reversible conformational transitions were confirmed at a molecular level with the use of sum-frequency generation spectroscopy and at a macroscopic level with the use of contact angle measurements. This type of surface design enables amplification of molecular-level conformational transitions to macroscopic changes in surface properties without altering the chemical identity of the surface. Such reversibly switching surfaces may open previously unknown opportunities in interfacial engineering.

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting, a flexible automated on-demand platform for the free-form fabrication of complex living architectures, is a novel approach for the design and engineering of human organs and tissues. Here, we demonstrate the potential of 3D bioprinting for tissue engineering using human skin as a prototypical example. Keratinocytes and fibroblasts were used as constituent cells to represent the epidermis and dermis, and collagen was used to represent the dermal matrix of the skin. Preliminary studies were conducted to optimize printing parameters for maximum cell viability as well as for the optimization of cell densities in the epidermis and dermis to mimic physiologically relevant attributes of human skin. Printed 3D constructs were cultured in submerged media conditions followed by exposure of the epidermal layer to the air-liquid interface to promote maturation and stratification. Histology and immunofluorescence characterization demonstrated that 3D printed skin tissue was morphologically and biologically representative of in vivo human skin tissue. In comparison with traditional methods for skin engineering, 3D bioprinting offers several advantages in terms of shape- and form retention, flexibility, reproducibility, and high culture throughput. It has a broad range of applications in transdermal and topical formulation discovery, dermal toxicity studies, and in designing autologous grafts for wound healing. The proof-of-concept studies presented here can be further extended for enhancing the complexity of the skin model via the incorporation of secondary and adnexal structures or the inclusion of diseased cells to serve as a model for studying the pathophysiology of skin diseases.

Undecanethiol (C11H23SH) and tri(ethylene glycol)-terminated undecanethiol (HO(C2H4O)3C11H22SH) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on clean gold surfaces were prepared and characterized. The SAMs were then immersed into either phosphate-buffered saline or calf serum. The SAM samples were investigated using several analytical techniques at numerous points over the next 35 days. Contact angles and current densities in voltammetry changed dramatically for the PBS samples over the time period, particularly after 21 days. Results indicate substantial loss of the integrity of the SAM. Similar alterations with time were observed for the calf serum samples in both contact angle and voltammetry measurements. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that the likely origin is desorption of the alkanethiol moiety as evidenced by appreciable loss of the S 2p signal after 35 days.

Although targeting oncogenic mutations in the BRAF serine/threonine kinase with small molecule inhibitors can lead to significant clinical responses in melanoma, it fails to eradicate tumors in nearly all patients. Successful therapy will be aided by identification of intrinsic mechanisms that protect tumor cells from death. Here, we used a bioinformatics approach to identify drug-able, "driver" oncogenes restricted to tumor versus normal tissues. Applying this method to 88 short-term melanoma cell cultures, we show that the antiapoptotic BCL2 family member BCL2A1 is recurrently amplified in ∼30% of melanomas and is necessary for melanoma growth. BCL2A1 overexpression also promotes melanomagenesis of BRAFimmortalized melanocytes. We find that high-level expression of BCL2A1 is restricted to melanoma due to direct transcriptional control by the melanoma oncogene MITF. Although BRAF inhibitors lead to cell cycle arrest and modest apoptosis, we find that apoptosis is significantly enhanced by suppression of BCL2A1 in melanomas with BCL2A1 or MITF amplification. Moreover, we find that BCL2A1 expression is associated with poorer clinical responses to BRAF pathway inhibitors in melanoma patients. Cotreatment of melanomas with BRAF inhibitors and obatoclax, an inhibitor of BCL2A1 and other BCL2 family members, overcomes intrinsic resistance to BRAF inhibitors in BCL2A1-amplified cells in vitro and in vivo. These studies identify MITF-BCL2A1 as a lineage-specific oncogenic pathway in melanoma and underscore its role for improved response to BRAF-directed therapy.

Studies of coat color mutants have greatly contributed to the discovery of genes that regulate melanocyte development and function. Here, we generated Yy1 conditional knockout mice in the melanocyte-lineage and observed profound melanocyte deficiency and premature gray hair, similar to the loss of melanocytes in human piebaldism and Waardenburg syndrome. Although YY1 is a ubiquitous transcription factor, YY1 interacts with M-MITF, the Waardenburg Syndrome IIA gene and a master transcriptional regulator of melanocytes. YY1 cooperates with M-MITF in regulating the expression of piebaldism gene KIT and multiple additional pigmentation genes. Moreover, ChIP–seq identified genome-wide YY1 targets in the melanocyte lineage. These studies mechanistically link genes implicated in human conditions of melanocyte deficiency and reveal how a ubiquitous factor (YY1) gains lineage-specific functions by co-regulating gene expression with a lineage-restricted factor (M-MITF)—a general mechanism which may confer tissue-specific gene expression in multiple lineages.