Study of changes in the secondary DNA structures of stem cells differentiating on scaffolds with different mechanical properties

Understanding of the conditions and ligands promoting or disrupting G4 and i-motif secondary DNA structure formations is believed to be next step in gene expression patterns for a range of therapeutic applications. Recent studies have confirmed that stems cells grown on scaffolds with different mechanical properties have changes in their DNA secondary structures modulating gene expression such as i-motif and G4. The proposed project will study the differentiation of stems cells on scaffolds fabricated with different mechanical properties and changes in their secondary DNA structures during the differentiation using immunofluorescence techniques and gene expression assays G4 ChIP-seq and RNA-seq. Project will investigate patterns and relationships between the scaffold mechanical properties and the changes to G4 and i-motif structures during human adipose-derived stem cells differentiation and their link to stem cellular regulatory mechanisms. In addition, investigation into the inter-dependency of G4 and i-motif structures during differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells on different types of scaffolds is proposed by the project statement.