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Miniaturisation
Cell Microsystems
Microsystem technologies offer exquisite spatial and temporal control at the same level as cellular processes. This research activity focuses on the development of micropatterning and microfluidic techniques for addressing outstanding challenges in cell biology.
The technologies provide a means to standardize the cellular microenvironment, producing precision and highly parallelized cellular assays. In this manner, reproducible, quantitative and high throughput experiments can be undertaken to gain deeper insights into cell biology as well as for meeting the demands of industry.
Key application examples include neuronal arrays for rapid neurotoxicity screening, the mass culture of uniform tumour spheroids for the development of anti-cancer therapies and a single cell co-culture platform for basic research into contact modes of communication.
Microfluidics with cellular valving for single cell co-culture
A cellular valving concept was introduced and used with differential resistance microfluidic circuits for the heterotypic coupling of single cells. The platform enables the high throughput investigation of contact modes of communication between single cells.
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Microarrays for neurotoxicity screening and the culture of tumour spheroids
Neuronal microarrays have been used as analytical displays for rapidly screening the neurodevelopmental inhibitory effects of test substances. Microarrays have also been used for the mass production of uniform tumour spheroids with tailored metabolic states.
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Cell patterning by thin film PDMS printing
A thin film PDMS printing technique was developed for patterned cell culture on tissue culture substrates. High resolution cellular patterns could be replicated over large areas.
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Cell patterning by plasma stencilling
Plasma stencilling techniques were developed for rendering hydrophobic surfaces permissive for patterned cell culture.
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Microplasma writing for surface-directed fluidics
Hydrophilic patterns were directly written on a hydrophobic glass substrate with a dielectic barrier discharge (DBD) microplasma jet and used for surface-directed capillary flow operations.
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