D1.

D1. Efficient delivery to different cell types

Cell Penetrating Peptides are being developed for the delivery of various types of cargoes into mammalian cells in culture (29). In mammalian cells, they are useful as tools for creating protein expression systems (30). More efficient peptides will be developed by Groups 7 and 5 that are compatible with a wider array of mammalian cells. These peptides also hold promise in targeting specific tissues in the context of full organism and delivering cargoes into cells of various organisms (bacteria, yeasts and plants in addition to mammals).

It is important to have an efficient means of modifying non‐immortalized cells in culture, to be able to maintain a native cell phenotype. Procedures and interventions (such as transfection) in these cells are much more challenging and transfection in most of these cases is inefficient. Therefore, we aim to develop delivery systems for various non‐immortalized and primary cells to serve as input to WP A2. Nucleic acid based cargo will be used for manipulating gene expression in target cells, such as siRNA and shRNA for specific gene knockdown, antiMIR for modulating gene expression patterns, and plasmid vectors for gene induction. Different molecular probes developed by WP C for manipulating biological systems will be attached to or encapsulated within the cell penetrating peptides.