1- Micro Stem Cell Chip and Automated System

PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED (PI) / OUTSIDE SKILL REQUIRED (OSR) / RESOLVED (R)

PAPER TITLE

A) Background

B) Hypothesis

B) Specific Aims

C) General Experimental Approach (Design etc)

D) Design Pitfalls and alternatives

E) Potential Figures

F) Future Directions

A) BACKGROUND:

Biophysical/biochemical regulation in the stem cell differentiation is important in biological research and the screening and characterization of cells for medical appli-cations. A typical regulation using biochemical factors (e.g. cytokines and growth factors) has been commonly used to get specific cells/tissues derived from mesen-chymal stem cells (MSCs). According to several recent reports, physical stimuli such as compression, shear stress, strain, stretch and hydraulic force also play important roles in the differentiation (chondrogenesis/osteogenesis) of MSCs. Among physical factors, pressure effect has been rarely studied in contrast with the other factors. This proposed device will be of interest in studying the cell responses to dy-namic changes of pressure in cell environment.

Recently several types of the micro cell stimulator have been developed and tested with commercial pressure sensors attached. The systems, however, can detect only the pneumatic pressure in the manifold connected to the cell chambers. We need an integrated pressure sensor array providing the real-time monitoring of the pressure in each cell chamber during the cell stimulation. This paper presents a state-of-the-art micro cell chip integrated with a pressure sensor array.

B) HYPOTHESIS

In order to improve manual cell culturing and mechanical stimulus experiments, a new device and system employing various mechanisms and micromachining technologies are needed. In particular, a recently proposed pneumatic pressure-based cell-chip for a stem cell differentiation experiment using mechanical stimulus employs micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) technology to reduce probability of contamination, achieve an ultra-slim and lightweight structure, and enable visual observation using a transparent material.

However, conventional apparatuses for stem cell differentiation experiments using mechanical stimuli still require a separate experiment for each mechanical stimulus, which drives up costs and effort. In addition, they still require manual application of mechanical stimulus and change of culture medium to operate individual chips.

C) SPECIFIC AIMS

AIM 1 -

AIM 2 -

D) GENERAL EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH

E) DESIGN PITFALLS AND ALTERNATIVES