Development of a lab-on-a-chip platform device for multimodal stimulation of cells

干细胞会根据环境因素生长成不同的细胞类型。使用外部刺激，如力和电来模拟体内条件，最近的进展可以将诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）重新编程为心肌细胞（CM）。长期应用包括个性化医疗和心血管疾病管理的药物心脏毒性测试。然而，目前细胞成熟率仍然很低，缺乏成熟评估方法，因此我们正在尝试解决的一个具体的生物工程问题是：通过使用先进的微流控装置，可以施加多模式刺激和感知细胞反应，我们是否可以建立一个方案，提高iPSC衍生CM的成熟率？这项发现资助计划将设计一类新的设备，将多模式外部刺激应用于具有内置力传感器的细胞，以感知细胞反应。 长期目标是建立一个协议，使用开发的设备来刺激细胞和评估细胞成熟的真实的时间。

Stem cells grow into different cell types based on environmental cues. Using external stimuli such as forces and electricity to mimic in vivo conditions, recent advances can reprogram induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into cardiomyocytes (CM). Long-term applications include drug cardiotoxicity testing for personalized medicine and cardiovascular disease management. However, the cell maturation rate is still low and protocols to assess cell maturation lacking.Thus one specific bioengineering question we are trying to address is: By using advanced microfluidic devices that can apply multimodal stimuli and sense cell responses, can we establish a protocol and improve the maturation rate of iPSC-derived CM? This Discovery Grant program will engineer a new class of devices that apply multimodal external stimuli to cells with built-in force sensors to sense cellular response. The longterm goal is to establish a protocol using the developed devices to stimulate cells and assess cell maturation in real time.