Biology subjects

Baskaran, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Baskaran, D..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Metabolic tagging of adipose-derived stem cells for targeted modulation of regenerative potency within mineralized collagen scaffolds

Recent efforts to reconstruct critical-sized craniomaxillofacial defects using biomaterials have increasingly sought strategies to accelerate proangiogenic processes immediately after surgical implantation to improve host-graft integration. A class of mineralized collagen scaffolds has recently been identified to promote osteogenesis of bone marrow and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells both in vivo and in vitro, motivating efforts to identify strategies to promote osteogenic-angiogenic coupling in order to support regenerative healing. Here, we report the first-time use of a glycoengineering approach to generate a population of engineered ASCs (eASCs) from human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs). This effort inserts an azido sugar onto the cell membrane that can be selectively targeted using DBCO-tagged biomolecules to selectively boost eASCs activity. We report the effects of azido sugar labeling conditions (concentration and incubation time) on eASCs labeling efficiency. We show proliferation and pro-regenerative gene expression activity of eASCs in mineralized collagen scaffolds are largely similar to conventional hASCs. And we demonstrate that molecular cargo functionalized with dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO) can be conjugated to azido groups on eASCs via click chemistry. Together, this work shows metabolically labeled eASCs have the potential to be used for selective delivery of activity-inducing bioactive cues to enhance regenerative potential.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

In Vivo Metabolic Tagging and Targeting of Circulating Red Blood Cells

Engineering red blood cells (RBCs) has been widely explored for drug delivery, imaging, vaccination, and other applications. However, effective strategies to directly engineer RBCs in vivo still do not exist. Here, for the first time, we report successful metabolic glycan labeling of RBCs in vivo. We demonstrate that systemically administered azido-sugars can metabolically label circulating RBCs with azido groups in the form of glycoproteins and glycolipids, with contributions from the labeling of both mature RBCs in the bloodstream and RBC precursor cells in the bone marrow. The RBC labeling efficiency can be improved by optimizing the choice and dose and dosing frequency of azido-sugars. The surface azido tags on RBCs can persist for >42 days in mice (nearly the lifespan of mouse RBCs), in sharp contrast to azido tags on leukocytes in the blood and cells in healthy tissues that decay to undetectable levels within 3 days. This in vivo RBC labeling technology does not induce any noticeable toxicity to RBCs, leukocytes, and healthy tissues. We further demonstrate that azido-labeled RBCs can covalently capture dibenzocyclooctyne-bearing cargos in vivo via click chemistry, prolonging the blood circulation of cargos from typical hours to >35 days. In a few examples, we show that the unprecedented RBC tagging and targeting technology can improve the fluorescence imaging of blood vessels and tumor tissues, enable long-term magnetic resonance imaging of brain vasculatures with one dose of gadolinium agent, and enhance the pharmacokinetics of drugs such as insulin.

bioengineering↗