Team:MIT/Collaborations

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Mammalian cell culture in microfluidic devices

Purpose

Integration of microfluidic devices has advanced considerably in quantitative biological research [1][2]. The timing of the fluid flow can be regulated with high accuracy because of the short response time of in-chip membrane valves (as quick as 1ms)[1]. Moreover, with the aid of hydrogel, cells growing in microfluidics can be structured in three-dimension geometries [1]. Therefore, cell culture performed in microfluidic devices could resemble in vivo conditions due to tight control of microenvironment [2]. On the other hand, automation is another advantageous of microfluidic technology. Instead of manual intervention, programmable fluid flows can automatically change chemical conditions of the culture environment. This feature would be particularly useful to examine dynamically changing systems [1]. The ability to precisely control fluid flows and chemical species, and automation of microfluidic technology are highly beneficial to future development of our project. Thus, MIT iGEM team decided to collaborate with the Boston University Hardware iGEM team to develop a protocol for mammalian cell culture in microfluidic devices

How does microfluidics benefit our project?

1. Automatically regulate estrogen and progestorone cycle in vitro cell culture
2. Resemble dynamically changing estrogen and progesterone concentration
3. Dynamically monitor cell reponse and output gene expression

Recombinases' sequences

Results

REFERENCE:

1. Mehling Matthias, and Tay Savas. Microfluidic Cell Culture. Science Direct 2014; 25:95-102.
2. Komen Job, Wolbers Floor, Franke R. Henk, et al. Viability analysis and apoptosis induction of breast cancer cells in a microfluidic device: effect of cytostatic drugs. Biomed Microdevices(2008); 10:727–737