Student Research Technician - Mechanical Adaptations Laboratory

Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at Boise State University

Research Project Introduction

The inspiration for a lot of this research comes from the idea that exercising is good for your cells, including your bone cells. Literature shows that vibrations, or mechanical stimulations, increase the proliferation (growth rate) of cells. An example of this is running - every time your foot hits the ground, this vibrates the bone cells in your leg, and that has been proven to be good for the growth of the cells. MAL is researching exactly why this is beneficial, and what is going on inside the cell during these mechanical stimulations. Their goal is to help with ailments such as osteoporosis.

There are two ongoing projects that my research is essentially a part of. They are called: "Mechanical Regulation of Nuclear Mechanics" and "Bone Marrow Analogs and Microgravity." More information can be found under Current Projects on the Mechanical Adaptations Lab page.

Final Report

Final Presentation

My Project with Dr. Zhangxian Deng

Dr. Deng specializes his research in smart materials, including piezoelectrics and magnetostrictive materials. In addition to the above mention that mechanical stimulations are beneficial for cells, it is also shown in literature that being under the effects of electric or magnetic fields can have positive effects on cells as well. If that sounds crazy, just think about how a lot of our brain function and neurological pathways run on electricity, so there are plenty electric fields present in our body. My experiments revolve around growing and stimulating cells as they grow on piezoelectric bioscaffolds.

Tissue Culturing in the Biology Lab

Over the summer I learned the process of growing cells, also referred to as tissue culturing. Our first task was to confirm the biocompatibility of our bioscaffolds, which were PVDF-trFE (polyvinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) and PLA (polylactic acid). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from mice were seeded among four 24-well plates and grew for two days.

As the cells grow, they metabolize and release metabolic by-products into the media that they are in. To measure the growth, I perform an XTT assay by adding in reagents that react with the metabolic by-products to change the color of the media from pink to orange. A spectrophotometer analyzes the different colors, and essentially gives me a reading of how much the cells have grown.

I exported the results from the spectrophotometer into Excel, sorted the data, and wrote a Matlab code to graph boxplots comparing the readings for each group. The similar results between the control group and the test groups indicate biocompatibility of the piezoelectric bioscaffold.

Work in the Engineering Innovation Studio (EIS) and Research Lab

In order to vibrate the stem cells while they're growing in the 24-well plates, we are using a shaker and we needed a part that could attached to the shaker, hold the well plates, and allow for an accelerometer to attach.

To measure the acceleration induced on the cells, I needed a simple part that could attach to the shaker and also have a threaded hole for the accelerometer.

To measure the effects of the acceleration on the well plates, I 3D printed a thicker well plate lid so that I could tap a thread for the accelerometer to tighly screw in to.

Here is the acrylic well plate holder in use.

Here is the acrylic accelerometer attachment piece in use.

Here is an example of the entire setup for calibration experiments.

Calibration Shaker Tests

Using a LabVIEW software setup connected to the accelerometer, I was able to adjust the shaker and test setup until I had exactly 1.0g of acceleration in the vertical direction (z-direction). The LabVIEW code was written to automatically export all of the collected data to an Excel sheet, which I then wrote a Matlab code to graph all of the data from Excel. While it kind of looks like a solid block, this is in fact a sine wave with thousands of data points taken every second. Seen below are also two more graphs from the same test which show that the accelerometer picked up negligible motion in the x-y plane.

More Information About MAL

"Studies in MAL are directed towards understanding how changes in tissue mechanical environment, in relation to exercise, aging, and unloading, regulate stem cell function."

"Research in MAL (Mechanical Adaptations Lab) employs both molecular biology and engineering principles to experimental and computational approaches with a goal of understanding how mechanical forces regulate cell structure and function."

"Our goal is to establish causative relationships of how mechanical signals are transduced at cellular level with the motivation to provide non-pharmacologic solutions to musculoskeletal decline through leveraging stem cell mechanobiology."

Final Report

Final Presentation

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