March 26, 2010
1. Dr. Jang presented a journal club based an Advanced Materials paper which formed bended PDMS based structures with programmed 3D structures solidified using rigid photocurable materials( here SU-8). The stabilized deformed structures will be useful for build some functional devices.
2. Dr. Kim presented his new research proposal regarding using ‘cardiac-based biosensor for toxin detection’ He proposed to use EB-differentiated contracting cells aggregates as cell component and photodiode-based imaging system as the detection components. Some of suggestions include:
· Need to take into consideration the heterogeneous cell populations in the differentiated EB. One suggestion from Hiro is that cardiac population from EB can be purified to be used as a cell source for the sensor
· Is it possible to make the device portable? Is it possible to incorporate the fluorescence detection modalities into the devices?
· Be careful of the cell maintenance chamber with stabilized temperature and PH. For PH, please refer to Hiro’s previous paper regarding the CO2-free medium
· Start thinking about the storage issue of the system
3. Fumiki presented his new research proposal regarding using alginate-based template to build microgel-packed blood-vessel-like structures by self-assembly. some of the suggestions include:
· Fix the schematics which described the new technical approach of assembly differently from the real experiments
· Refer to Javier’s paper to optimize the assembly procedure
· Think about how to the mechanism of the assembly
· Try to reduce the numbers of hydrogels used for this method and try to achieve single layer formation of the microgels on the fiber surface
· If the final goal is to build blood vessel graft by taking advantages of the sacrificial alginate template, an alternative approach can be used that direct coating of cells (HUVEC)on the surface of the alginate fibers, culture the cells to form a confluent layer and dissolve the alginate mold to harvest the blood vessel graft.
4. Joel presented his progress in his project to study the patterned differentiation of the osteoblast precursor cells encapsulated a microchannel in gelatin. Some of the suggestions include:
· Clarify the biological relevance of this project to justify the novelty of the project.
· Try not to pull the needle all out of the channel so the remaining needle inside the gelatin will solve the cracking problems at the interface between the gelatin and PDMS
· Repeat the live/dead assay of the cells cultured in thick GelMa and maybe some other materials in parallel (such as PEG or HA) under static condition for 6 days. Try to use higher-magnification, try to have control for the live and dead cells when adjusting the gain of the fluorescence images. The bottom-up of this step is to choose a good material which will give us a difference of viability or bone function (mineralization) between static and profusion culture.