Development of a co-culture microfluidic device that mimics vascularized tissues

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CellScale develops, manufactures, and commercializes biomaterial mechanical test systems and bioreactors for tissue engineering applications. One of CellScale's current projects is to develop a microfluidic device that mimics the key characteristics of vascularized tissues. Accurately predicting in vivo drug response has been a challenge due to the lack of effective pre-clinical tools, resulting in a 90% false positive rate for compounds in clinical trials. There is a significant demand for new tools to accurately model cell barriers, such as blood vessel endothelium, that regulate the transport of drugs to target tissues. Co-culture systems that can support both endothelial and target tissue cells, represent a critical step towards improving the physiological relevance of in vitro cell culture. The inclusion of endothelial cells has been shown to more accurately replicate in vivo drug response, extend cell viability, and illuminate the nature of disease pathophysiology. Therefore, here we propose to develop a microfluidic device that can be used as an in vitro model of cell barrier function.****The intended device will have two parallel microfluidic channels separated by a porous membrane. Choosing optimal materials, which possess specific surface properties such as being biocompatible, sterilisable and hydrophilic, is the first task. In particular, the channels should be non-adhesive to cells while the membrane should be adhesive to cells. How to effectively bond/assemble the microfluidic channels, the membrane and other components of the device is the second issue to be addressed. The device material and manufacturing process may affect the flow characteristics in the channels. The flow characteristics are important because the shear stresses introduced by the flow have an impact of the cultured cells. Therefore, a third major task of this project will be to evaluate the impact on flow characteristics of various materials and assembly options. The integration of the expertise and facility available in the applicant's laboratory at the University of Waterloo and CellScale will ensure the success of the proposed co-culture microfluidic device.****