Development of bioimpedance based Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) sensor systems for tissue engineering
By PhD Student Chiara Canali , DTU Nanotech
The objective of this project is to construct a proof of concept bioimpedance based 3D tissue culture Lab on a Chip (LOC) system that will enable real-time monitoring of the entire process of tissue engineering, starting from a bare 3D polymer hybrid scaffold inside the LOC, for allowing human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) attachment, growth, differentiation, to form vascularised Bioartificial Liver (BAL)-on-a-Chip systems.
Bioimpedance-based monitoring of tissue growth and vascularisation is based on changes in the dielectric properties of the hydrogel scaffold upon growth of hiPSC-derived hepatocytes and endothelial cells that form the lining of the vascularised structures. To facilitate impedance measurements in a 3D cell culture system and eliminating the influence of the capacitive effects of electrode interface, a specially adapted electrode system will be designed having two pairs of electrodes (four-point electrode system). One electrode pair (excitation electrodes) having an electrode on each side of the hydrogel medium will be used to apply the sinusoidal perturbation potential needed for the measurements. A second pair of electrodes (probing electrodes) will be placed perpendicular to the excitation electrodes to detect the in-phase and out-of-phase current, resulting from the applied perturbation potential.