CAREER: Microfluidic Cell Encapsulation for High Throughput Screening and Rationally Designed Biomaterials

University Of Wyoming, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

1254608 Oakey, John S. In situ forming hydrogel tissue scaffolds hold tremendous potential for regenerating damaged or diseased tissues by delivering reparative cells within a three-dimensional matrix to the site of injury. Many natural and synthetic hydrogel-based tissue scaffolds have been developed for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications but most suffer from a common bottleneck: the inevitable compromise between a material?s diffusive conductivity and mechanical strength. This project introduces microfluidic cell encapsulation as a route to develop vehicles for the high-throughput screening of cell-matrix interactions and the selfassembly of composite hydrogel scaffolds. These techniques will help develop superior modalities to repair and regenerate damaged tissues by understanding and designing tissue scaffolds to account for the response of cells to their chemical, physical and mechanical environment. This work addresses both the slow pace of innovation in the field of regenerative medicine as well as intractable, intrinsic conflicts in current approaches to biomaterial development for tissue engineering. Over the course of this project, new high-throughput optical screening instrumentation will be developed and self-assembly techniques will be demonstrated and characterized. This project proposes potentially transformative technology at the intersection of engineering, biology and the physical sciences. Miniaturization techniques and devices will be developed to rapidly assess the response to cell encapsulation within tissue-like biomaterials. This information will be employed to strategically build implantable tissue scaffolds. This project focuses upon biomaterials and cell types that are appropriate for the regeneration of structural tissues such as cartilage and bone, but will ultimately be applicable to a variety of therapeutic scenarios. This project also includes a significant commitment to develop an educational outreach program built upon synergistic curriculum development efforts. The educational goals of this proposal are to develop and introduce microfluidic devices as demonstrations and laboratory modules at the university, high school and elementary school levels. These devices will be designed to present fundamental concepts in a visual format while connecting intuitive demonstrations with more complex data collection and analysis via emerging mobile technology. The microfluidic tools provide a direct link between the research and educational components of this proposal. Initially, the focus will be upon curriculum development by developing a capstone Chemical Engineering Unit Operations Laboratory around microfluidic experiments. Subsequently, these devices will be modified for use as demonstrations with existing outreach programs in Wyoming K-12 schools. This CAREER award is jointly funded by the Biotechnology, Biochemical and Biomass Engineering Program of the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Division, and by the Office of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).