Researchers are using bioengineering to trigger and control cell differentiation and transition is expand possibilities for diagnostics, vaccine development and therapeutic treatments.

Growing knowledge about the body’s biological processes is increasing the possibilities for restoring human health, says Xiao Wang, an associate professor of biomedical engineering in Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He and a team of researchers are exploring ways to trigger and control cell differentiation and transition to unlock properties that may change bioengineers’ approach to diagnostics, vaccine development and therapeutic treatments.

Recent research led by Wang and Alexander Green, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, reveals more about the potential for designing small add-on structures for biomolecules that can enhance their properties.

«There could be new and better kinds of applications for diagnostics, therapeutics and treatments, and for genome engineering,» Wang says. «These could be big contributions to biomedicine.»

The details about what the research may yield appear in the paper Predictable control of RNA lifetime using engineered degradation-tuning RNAs, published this week in the research journal Nature Chemical Biology.

Wang and Green’s focus is on messenger RNA, or mRNA, which carries genetic information from DNA, the molecule that contains the genetic blueprint needed to develop and maintain organisms — including humans.

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Materials provided by Arizona State University. Original written by Joe Kullman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.