3D-CELLSISTOR Versatile 3D Bioelectronic Platform for In Vitro Models

生物学和电子学或生物电子学的接口开创了跨学科研究，并导致了医学和医疗保健的显着发展。在体外或体外研究人体细胞的能力拓宽了我们对人体的认识，而无需进行广泛和侵入性的动物或人体研究。组织工程学的进步使得构建用于宿主和生长细胞的3D结构成为可能，这是人体细胞环境的更准确表示。在这些3D结构中观察细胞行为将需要比光学成像更复杂的技术，光学成像仅从有限的2D视角提供整个过程的“快照”。有机电子学可以在这一领域提供重要的整体输入，将3D结构集成到电子器件中，将离子生物信号转换为电信号。该项目旨在设计和开发先进的生物电子设备，作为一个通用平台，通过连续，动态和直接的电子监测来托管和监测细胞行为。它将解决从生物学角度理解电信号的关键挑战，并形成两个系统之间的相关性。这些相关性之间专业知识的不断深入将为人类细胞在健康和疾病中的整体理解提供丰富的知识。这位研究人员是印度裔，最近成功完成了德国斯图加特大学有机电子学主题的博士学位。她在有机电子器件的制造和表征方面具有丰富的经验。在剑桥大学，她将有机会获得细胞生物学、组织工程和先进生物电子学方面的经验。

The interfacing of biology and electronics, or bioelectronics, has pioneered interdisciplinary research and led to remarkable developments in medicine and healthcare. The ability to study human cells in vitro, or outside the body, has widened the horizon of our knowledge of the human body, without extensive and invasive animal or human based studies. Advances in tissue engineering have made it possible to build 3D structures for hosting and growing cells, which are more accurate representations of the cell environments in the human body. Observing cell behaviour in these 3D structures will require more complex techniques than optical imaging, which merely provide "a snapshot" of the entire process and from a limited 2D perspective. Organic electronics can provide a vital holistic input in this domain to integrate the 3D structures into electronic devices to transduce the ionic biological signals intoelectrical ones. This project aims to design and develop sophisticated bioelectronic devices which will function as a universal platform to host and monitor cell behaviour through continuous, dynamic and direct electronic monitoring. It will address the key challenge of understanding the electrical signals from a biological perspective and form correlations between the two systems. An increasing depth of expertise between these correlations will provide a wealth of knowledge to the overall understanding of human cells in health and disease.The researcher is of Indian origin and has recently successfully completed her PhD in the topic of organic electronics from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. She has experience in the fabrication and characterization of organic electronic devices. At the University of Cambridge, she will have the opportunity to gain experience in cell biology, tissue engineering and advanced bioelectonics.