Electrophysiology chip on a microfluidic platform

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The action of the heart can be simplified by considering it as a set of large muscles, whose synchronised contractions draws blood in the chambers and forces it out again. This timing of the muscle's contractions are crucial to its correct functioning. One method for testing the activity of the heart is known as 'patch clamping', in which it is possible to measure the electrical activity of the cell. This is a technically difficult, time consuming technique which often needs to be performed by skilled scientists, and which we believe we can address by making new instruments. The project aims to create a Lab-on-a-Chip, where highly functional measurements, which collect information on both the mechanical contraction and the electrical activity of the single cell, will be implemented on such chips. These chips will either make general measurements of how well the cell contractsor more specific measurements on the flow of voltages and currents as the cell contracts, or both, at the same time. The project will benefit the scientific community by providing an easy to use instrument, that can quickly, and at low cost, measure both the mechanical and the electrical activity of the heart or muscle cell. The nature of the platform will be such that we can not only use the chip to examine intracellular signalling, but also inter-cellular signalling, between cells. In order to demonstrate the more generic nature of the chip for use with other electrically active cell types, we will also investigate the use of primary smooth muscle as well as human embryonic stem cells (hESC) derived cardiomyocytes and smooth muscle in our chip systems.