A user-friendly scalable microfluidic platform for enhanced neuron-cell culture

描述(申请人提供)：神经元细胞培养广泛用于基础研究、药物发现和毒性测试的研究。由于神经元的广泛和随机生长，传统的随机培养允许有限地进入亚细胞室(轴突、树突、突触)。我们的长期目标是提供强大的、用户友好的、成本效益高的培养平台，能够以光学、流体和生物化学的方式访问神经元及其亚细胞室。通过销售我们团队开发并获得专利的原型平台获得的数据显示，需求巨大且不断增长。客户反馈还表明，技术改进将使我们的平台更易于访问和使用。这些改进包括确保设备的更大一致性，减少最终用户的组装程序，以及提高神经元经常需要的长期培养期的生存能力。因此，我们的首要目标是通过以下方式解决这些问题：(1)将细胞加载端口整合到平台中，以减少细胞加载错误；(2)通过开发高分辨率、耐用的金属模具来改进功能一致性；(3)开发降低蒸发损失的方法，以损害神经元的生存能力；(4)通过表面改性增加设备材料的润湿性和生物相容性；以及(5)将细胞外基质蛋白共价连接到玻璃上，以最大限度地减少最终用户的组装。这一目标的成功实现将产生一个一致的、成本效益高的、即用即用的神经元细胞培养平台。我们的下一个目标是开发新的基于细胞的工具来研究突触，突触是神经科学的基石。对分离突触的方法有相当大的需求，现有技术存在局限性。在目标2中，我们将开发用户友好的突触分离工具，扩展目标1的核心技术进步。目标2将涉及(1)开发稳定的人造突触珠靶，允许对突触前室进行新的研究，以及(2)开发一个三室突触隔离平台，该平台利用设备几何形状和突触珠来鼓励在隔离的突触间室内形成突触。这一目标的成功完成将产生一种用户友好的、可访问的、创新的基于细胞的工具来用光学和生物化学方法探测突触。这项拟议工作的意义是提高研究科学家可视化、操作和测量培养神经元的能力，从而更好地理解神经疾病的根本原因。这项研究具有创新性，因为我们试图通过开发新的基于细胞的工具来分离突触，从而在没有体细胞或胶质细胞的情况下保持完整的细胞形态，从而改变目前的研究范式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuron-cell culture is widely used for studies in basic research, drug discovery, and toxicity testing. Traditional random cultures allow limited access to subcellular compartments (axons, dendrites, synapses) due to extensive and haphazard growth of neurons. Our long-term goal is to provide robust, user-friendly, and cost effective culture platforms that can optically, fluidically, and biochemically access neurons and their subcellular compartments. Data acquired through sales of prototype platforms developed and patented by our team show a large and increasing demand. Customer feedback also indicates that technological improvements would make our platforms more accessible and user-friendly. Such improvements include ensuring greater uniformity of the device, reducing end-user assembly procedures, and enhancing viability for the long-term culturing period that is often needed for neurons. Thus, our first aim focuses on addressing these issues by (1) incorporating cell loading ports into the platform to reduce cell loading errors, (2) improving feature uniformit through the development of high-resolution, durable metal molds, (3) developing methods to reduce evaporative losses that impair neuron viability, (4) increasing the wettability and biocompatibility of the device material through surface modification, and (5) covalently linking extracellular matrix proteins onto glass to minimize end-user assembly. The successful completion of this aim will result in a consistent, cost-effective, and ready-to-use neuron-cell culture platform. Our next aim focuses on the development of novel cell-based tools to study synapses, the cornerstone of neuroscience. There is considerable demand for methods to isolate synapses and there are limitations in existing techniques. In Aim 2 we will develop user-friendly synapse isolation tools, expanding on core technological advancements from Aim 1. Aim 2 will involve (1) development of stable, artificial synaptic bead targets allowing novel investigations of the presynaptic compartment and (2) development of a three-compartment synapse isolation platform that exploits device geometry and synaptic beads to encourage synapse formation within an isolated synaptic compartment. The successful completion of this aim will result in a user-friendly, accessible, and innovative cell-based tool to optically and biochemically probe synapses. The significance of the proposed work is to improve research scientists' ability to visualize, manipulate, and measure cultured neurons leading to greater understanding of the underlying causes of neurological diseases. This research is innovative because we seek to shift current research paradigms through the development of novel cell-based tools to isolate synapses that maintain intact cell morphology in the absence of somata or glia.