Setbacks and Future Directions

During our time pursuing our project, we encountered a few setbacks that hindered our progress.

• Our initial design was based on a literature search, during which we built a circuit that did not perfectly achieve our desired outcome.

  • During testing, the noise exceeded the sensitivity of our measurements, forcing us to pivot in a different direction.

• Cell culturing our cardiomyocytes gave us many problems as well.

  • The CMRG incubator had many mechanical issues, leading to incubation temperatures lower than physiological temperature (37ºC), low CO2 concentration, and random failure.

  • During transit from another lab, our cells became contaminated.

  • Supply chain issues led to a backorder of our cell culture media, leading to an unoptimized cell culture protocol.

1. Test our circuit on live cells to validate the biocompatibility of our electrical pacing system.

2. Develop protocols for cardiac disease modeling and cardiomyocyte maturation models using our integrated electromechanical pacing system.

3. Utilizing sensor for quantifying the electrical and mechanical output of cardiomyocytes for further validation of the success of the electromechanical stimulus of our system.

   1. Pressure sensor to validate controlled and synchronized beating of the cardiomyocytes.

   2. Electrical sensor to validate the synchronized firing of action potentials of the cardiomyocytes.

4. Expand on the modularity of our system and potenially allow for the system to be used in other models of muscle (smooth and skeletal muscle).