Biology subjects

Boucher, J. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Boucher, J. D..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

CELLISA - a cell-cell binding assay for evaluation of nanovesicle targeting proteins

Enhancing targeted delivery of biomedicines improves efficacy and can reduce off-target effects by lowering the effective dose, but achieving targeting is challenging. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising biological nanovesicles which can be targeted by displaying binding proteins and are being developed as therapeutics. Currently, discovering EV targeting constructs is limited by low throughput and resource-intensive EV production and isolation. To accelerate discovery, we developed a screening pipeline to identify EV targeting constructs without requiring EV production. This approach is premised on the hypothesis that cell-cell interactions may predict some cell-EV interactions. Our cell binding assay (CELLISA) quantifies binding of a cell surface-displayed targeting protein to its cognate receptor on a target cell, employing a microscopy-based analysis pipeline. After validating the premise using existing T cell-targeting reagents, we develop CELLISA for either adherent or suspension EV producer cells. Finally, we use CELLISA to evaluate new binders and validate that hits mediate targeting and/or delivery of genetic cargo to natural killer cells and T cells. CELLISA increased throughput > 6-fold and decreased time by 40% compared to standard EV screens, and it identified a T-cell binder conferring efficient gene delivery. CELLISA is easily adaptable to other laboratories and can accelerate EV research.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Distinguishing Protein and Gene Delivery Enables Characterization and Bioengineering of Extracellular Vesicle-Adeno-Associated Virus Vectors

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies have achieved some clinical success, with multiple products reaching regulatory approval. Encapsulation of AAV vectors within engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) is an emerging strategy which could help overcome challenges including pre-existing anti-capsid immunity and the need for controlling targeting and tropism. To guide the development of EV-AAV technologies, we developed an assay for quantifying and controlling for the contribution of pseudotransduction to evaluations of EV-AAV-mediated transduction. We developed an AAV vector that switches its transgene output from one reporter to another when acted upon by Cre recombinase expressed in a recipient cell. Using this platform, we investigated EV-AAV transduction as a function of various engineered EV surface modifications. For actively endocytic cells (HEK293FTs), modifications that enhance EV uptake and membrane fusion influence pseudotransduction but not true transduction. Conversely, in less endocytic Jurkat T cells, modifications enhancing EV uptake enhanced both pseudotransduction and true transduction. These conclusions held across two AAV serotypes. Our results provide new insight into prior reports and suggest that effects of enhancing uptake and membrane fusion of EV-AAV vectors are recipient cell type-specific. The methods developed here unambiguously dissect EV-AAV transduction mechanisms and can guide future bioengineering of EV-AAV vectors.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Engineered Feedback Employing Natural Hypoxia-Responsive Factors Enhances Synthetic Hypoxia Biosensors

DNA-based hypoxia biosensors conditionally express a gene of interest when a cell is in a state of inadequate oxygen supply, which is a feature of several acute and chronic diseases. These biosensors can be deployed in engineered cells to study or treat disease. Although the central mediators of hypoxia responsiveness have been characterized, the dynamics of this response are generally less understood, and there is no general approach to modulate hypoxia biosensors to tune their performance to meet application-specific needs. To address the need for high-performing hypoxia biosensors, we investigated strategies to enhance biosensor performance by identifying minimal promoter choices and positive feedback circuits that both achieved low background and amplified hypoxia-induced gene expression. To generate insight into the mechanisms by which feedback drives differential performance, we developed an explanatory mathematical model. Our analysis suggests a previously unreported dual regulatory mechanism that was necessary to explain the full set of experimental observations and that provides new insights into regulatory dynamics in chronic hypoxia. This study exemplifies the potential of using synthetic gene circuits to perturb natural systems in a manner that uniquely enables the elucidation of novel facets of natural regulation.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Skin-resident immune cells actively coordinate their distribution with epidermal cells during homeostasis

Our organs consist of multiple cell types that ensure proper architecture and function. How different cell types coexist and interact to maintain their homeostasis in vivo remain elusive. The skin epidermis comprises mostly epithelial cells, but also harbors Langerhans cells (LCs) and Dendritic Epidermal T cells (DETCs). In response to injury or infection, LCs and DETCs become activated and play critical immunological roles. During homeostasis, they coexist with epithelial cells in the basal layer of the epidermis. Whether, and how, distributions of LCs and DETCs are regulated during homeostasis is unclear. Here, we addressed this question by tracking LCs, DETCs and epithelial basal cells over time within the skin of live adult mice. We show that LCs and DETCs maintain their overall position despite continuous turnover of neighboring basal epithelial stem cells. Moreover, LCs and DETCs rapidly and maximally explore basal epithelial cell junctions through their dendritic extensions. Altering the epithelial cell density triggers corresponding changes in the immune cell density, but not vice versa, suggesting that epithelial cells determine immune tissue composition in the epidermis. Moreover, LCs and DETCs are organized in a tiling pattern that is actively maintained. When LCs or DETCs are ectopically removed, neighboring epidermal LCs or DETCs, respectively, move into the emptied spaces and re-establish the tiling pattern. Finally, LCs require the GTPase Rac1 to maintain their positional stability, density and tiling pattern. Overall, we discovered that epidermal cells regulate the density of immune cells during homeostasis, and that immune cells actively maintain a non-random spatial distribution, reminiscent of neuronal self-avoidance. We propose that these cellular mechanisms provide the epidermis with an optimal response to environmental insults.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Computation-guided optimization of split protein systems

Splitting bioactive proteins, such as enzymes or fluorescent reporters, into conditionally reconstituting fragments is a powerful strategy for building tools to study and control biochemical systems. However, split proteins often exhibit a high propensity to reconstitute even in the absence of the conditional trigger, which limits their utility. Current approaches for tuning reconstitution propensity are laborious, context-specific, or often ineffective. Here, we report a computational design-driven strategy that is grounded in fundamental protein biophysics and which guides the experimental evaluation of a focused, sparse set of mutants--which vary in the degree of interfacial destabilization while preserving features such as stability and catalytic activity--to identify an optimal functional window. We validate our method by solving two distinct split protein design challenges, generating both broad insights and new technology platforms. This method will streamline the generation and use of split protein systems for diverse applications.

synthetic biology↗