Living Drug Factories: The Secreted Life of Therapeutic Proteins

Living Drug Factories: The Secreted Life of Therapeutic Proteins

Suman Bose, Amanda Facklam, Amanda Whipple, Robert Langer, Daniel Anderson
Koch Institute at MIT

Cell therapy comes from within. Researchers in the Langer and Anderson laboratories are engineering “smart” cells (blue) and seeding them on an implantable chip (black). As the cells mature (green), they secrete proteins (red) that can fight disease in the surrounding tissue by responding to the conditions therein.

The biocompatible device not only allows the cells to grow in their natural environment and deliver exactly the right amount of drug when needed, it also protects the system from destruction by immune cells.

Suman Bose and Amanda Facklam share the story behind their winning image at the exhibit opening ceremony on March 20, 2019.