From Nanotechnology to Epigenomics and Regenerative Medicine

From Nanotechnology to Epigenomics and Regenerative Medicine

The objective of regenerative medicine is to repair tissues and organs that are damaged by trauma, disease or aging. The stem cell based technologies have promised to advance therapeutic applications including organ transplants and tissue repair. Although more studies are now being conducted to reveal mechanisms regulating stem cell fate, epigenetic events that contribute to cell differentiation are still relatively poorly defined. Next generation sequencing combined with chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIPseq) or bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq) is the most common tool to study histone modifications and DNA methylation. However, it requires an abundance of research material and has limited ability to detect different epigenetic signatures in the same cell type. The recent development of the single chromatin analysis at the nanoscale (SCAN) using the nanofluidic single-molecule sorter allows the simultaneous detection of multiple epigenetic marks in a small number of cells.