Highly reproducible tissue positioning with tapered pillar design in engineered heart tissue platforms

We present a novel design of elastic micropillars for tissue self-assembly in engineered heart tissue (EHT) platforms. The innovative tapered profile confines reproducibly the tissue position along the main micropillar axis, increasing the accuracy of tissue contraction force measurement. Polydimethylsiloxane-based pillars were designed and...

ForceTracker: A versatile tool for contractile force assessment in 3D organ-on-chip platforms

An engineered heart tissue platform with integrated pacing microelectrodes

Microelectromechanical Organs-on-Chip

Stemming from the convergence of tissue engineering and microfluidics, organ-on-chip (OoC) technology can reproduce in vivo-like dynamic microphysiological environments for tissues in vitro. The possibility afforded by OoC devices of realistic recapitulation of tissue and organ (patho)physiology may hold the key to bridge the current...

A Miniaturized EHT Platform for Accurate Measurements of Tissue Contractile Properties

We present a wafer-scale fabricated, PDMS-based platform for culturing miniaturized engineered heart tissues (EHTs) which allows highly accurate measurements of the contractile properties of these tissues. The design of the platform is an anisometrically downscaled version of the Heart-Dyno system, consisting of two elastic micropillars inside...

Miniaturized engineered heart tissues from human induced pluripotent cell-derived co-culture

Miniaturized engineered heart tissues from HiPSC-derived co-culture

FET-based integrated charge sensor for organ-on-chip applications

We present an extremely compact field effect transistor (FET)-based electrochemical sensor for in situ real-time and label-free measurement of ion concentrations in the cell culture area of organs-on-chip (OoCs) devices. This sensor replaces the functionality of an external reference electrode, crucial in standard electrochemical sensing, by...

Sensor applications for organ-on-chip platforms

Monitoring cell conditions and microenvironment in real time is crucial for Organ-on-Chip (OoC) functionality. In particular, biological cues such as ions, including metals and metabolites, play a critical role in physiology and homeostasis in the human body. • Real-time monitoring of ions without optical systems is an unmet need for OOCs [1]. •...

A miniaturized EHT platform for contractile tissue measurements

We presented the smallest and best characterised EHT devices to date. The devices were fabricated by wafer-scale silicon and polymer processing, characterised by nanoindentation and finite-element simulations, and transferred to 96-well plates for cell seeding and optical tracking of bundle contraction. Cell bundles remained functional for at...