BRIGE: Minority Education and Research in Biomedical Microdevices - An Optically Controlled Cell Culturing and Harvesting Platform

Brige：生物医学微设备的少数民族教育和研究--一个光学控制的细胞培养和收获平台“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。”阻碍干细胞疗法成功创造的一些主要障碍包括准确和可重复地控制干细胞的分化，以及创造足够数量的细胞用于治疗程序。这些障碍可以通过仔细控制干细胞的生长条件来克服，但目前的细胞培养技术不能提供足够的准确性和重复性。此外，当前细胞培养方案的局限性阻碍了基本的细胞研究，如细胞之间的相互作用及其如何影响细胞的生长和复制。加强对培养中细胞的控制有能力释放基于细胞的治疗的潜力，增加对细胞过程的基础知识，并能够研究个体细胞对刺激的反应行为，例如在药物筛选中。拟议研究的智力价值是设计和制造一种光学控制的细胞培养和收获平台，使特定单细胞的受控培养能够达到前所未有的准确程度。光控细胞培养平台可用于分离感兴趣的特定细胞以供进一步培养、从更大的培养群体中获取特定细胞、或将细胞放置在特定图案和位置以用于受控细胞培养。这些功能将通过在培养中丰富所需的细胞来改进干细胞治疗。此外，许多其他类型的细胞培养将受益于光控细胞培养平台的浓缩能力。此外，该平台将能够对同质和异质细胞群体之间的细胞-细胞相互作用进行更详细的基础研究。拟议研究的更广泛影响将使生物学家能够以无与伦比的控制程度研究培养中的细胞。这有可能加深对细胞过程的理解。此外，更准确的细胞培养条件有可能克服干细胞研究中的主要障碍，使干细胞能够用于治疗阿尔茨海默病、S病、心脏病、I型糖尿病、中风和脊髓损伤等疾病和状况。为了进行这项拟议的研究，来自代表性不足群体的研究生和本科生将从夏威夷大学成功的原住民科学与工程导师计划以及夏威夷大学女性工程师协会和IEEE医学与生物工程学会的学生分会中招募。这项拟议的研究将让夏威夷原住民和女学生有机会参与一个生物医学微型设备的尖端研究项目，创建一个研究生水平的教育和研究项目，为代表不足的少数族裔群体培养未来一代的榜样。与K-12学生和社区的接触将培养夏威夷大学马诺阿分校对生物医学微设备研究的兴趣。

BRIGE: Minority Education and Research in Biomedical Microdevices - An Optically Controlled Cell Culturing and Harvesting Platform"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."Some of the major obstacles preventing the successful creation of stem cell therapies include accurately and reproducibly controlling the differentiation of stem cells, and creating a sufficient amount of cells for therapeutic procedures. These obstacles can be overcome by carefully controlling the growth conditions of stem cells, but current cell culture techniques do not provide enough accuracy and reproducibility. Furthermore, limitations in current cell culture protocols hamper fundamental cellular studies, such as the interaction between cells and how it affects cellular growth and replication. Increased control over cells in culture has the power to unlock the potential of cell-based therapies, increase fundamental knowledge of cellular processes, and enable studies of individual cell behavior in response to stimuli, such as in drug screening.The intellectual merit of the proposed research is the design and fabrication of an optically controlled cell culturing and harvesting platform that will enable the controlled culture of specific single cells with an unprecedented degree of accuracy. The optically controlled cell culturing platform can be used to isolate specific cells of interest for further culturing, harvest specific cells from a larger culture population, or position cells in specific patterns and locations for controlled cell culturing. These functionalities will enable the improvement of stem cell treatments by enriching the desired cells in culture. In addition, many other types of cell cultures will benefit from the enrichment capability of the optically controlled cell culturing platform. Furthermore, the platform will enable more detailed fundamental research into cell-cell interactions between homogeneous and heterogeneous populations of cells.The broader impacts of the proposed research will enable biologists to study cells in culture with an unparalleled degree of control. This has the potential to further the understanding of cellular processes. Furthermore, more accurate cell culture conditions have the potential to overcome major obstacles in stem cell research, enabling the use of stem cells in therapeutic applications for diseases and conditions such as Alzheimer?s disease, heart disease, type I diabetes, stroke, and spinal cord injuries. To perform the proposed research, graduate and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups will be recruited from the successful Native Hawaiian Science & Engineering Mentorship Program and the student chapters of the Society of Women Engineers and IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society at the University of Hawaii. The proposed research will give the Native Hawaiian and female students an opportunity to work on a cutting-edge research project in biomedical microdevices, creating a graduate-level education and research program that will train a future generation of role models for underrepresented minority groups. Outreach to K-12 students and the community will foster interest in biomedical microdevice research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.