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

干细胞根据环境线索成长为不同类型的细胞。用力和电等外部刺激来模拟体内条件，最近的进展可以将诱导的多能干细胞(IPSCs)重新编程为心肌细胞(CM)。长期应用包括个性化药物的药物心脏毒性测试和心血管疾病管理。然而，细胞成熟率仍然很低，评估细胞成熟度的方案也很少。因此，我们试图解决的一个特定的生物工程问题是：通过使用先进的微流控设备，可以施加多模式刺激和感知细胞反应，我们能否建立一种方案并提高IPSC来源的CM的成熟率？这一发现资助计划将设计一种新的设备，将多模式外部刺激应用到具有内置力传感器的细胞上，以感知细胞反应。长期目标是建立一种方案，使用开发的设备来刺激细胞并实时评估细胞成熟。

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.