Multiscale 3D printed polymer probes for single cell experiments

A rapid prototyping method to fabricate microfluidic atomic force microscopy cantilevers for single cell studies

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

P.F.J. van Altena Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

M.K. Ghatkesar Micro and Nano Engineering - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
L. Angeloni Micro and Nano Engineering - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (coach)
E.L. Fratila-Apachitei Biomaterials & Tissue Biomechanics - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 2)
T. Manzaneque Garcia Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (coach)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Pieter van Altena
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Published Date

14-10-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Facioscapulohumeral muscle dystrophy (FSHD) is the third most common muscle disease in the world. No cure has been found for FSHD, and current treatments focus on alleviating the symptoms. The disease is caused by a genetic error in 1/1000 - 1/200 of the nuclei in a multinucleated skeletal muscle cell. Studying that specific nucleus, by removing it from the cell, perform transcriptomics on it and determining the cell viability after the nucleus removal, can provide important information about FSHD.

In this work, a multiscale 3D printing approach was optimized to fabricate a microfluidic atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilever that can remove a nucleus from a living cell. With the device mounted on an AFM system, cell experiments were performed, which showed that the nucleus can be removed from a cell using 3D printed microfluidic cantilevers. The printing methods can be used to fabricate various types of suspended microfluidic devices to perform single-cell biopsy and biophysical characterization of single-cells.