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

干细胞根据环境因素生长成不同的细胞类型。***利用外力和电流等外部刺激来模拟体内条件，最近的进展可以将诱导多能干细胞（iPSCs）重编程为心肌细胞（CM）。长期应用包括个体化用药和心血管疾病管理的药物心脏毒性测试。然而，细胞成熟率仍然很低，缺乏评估细胞成熟的方案。因此，我们试图解决的一个具体的生物工程问题是：通过使用先进的微流体设备，可以应用多模态刺激和感知细胞反应，我们可以建立一个协议并提高ipsc衍生CM的成熟率吗？这项发现资助计划将设计一种新型设备，该设备将多模态外部刺激应用于内置力传感器的细胞，以感知细胞的反应。长期目标是建立一个使用开发的设备来刺激细胞和实时评估细胞成熟的协议。

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.