Two-photon polymerization-based 3D-multi-electrode arrays for electrical monitoring of neuronal cells

3D-multi-electrode arrays (3D-MEAs) are needed to overcome the limitations of 2D-multi-electrode arrays (2D-MEAs) and enable the electrical characterization of 3D neuronal cultures in in vitro brain models, advancing the understanding of neurological disorders and paving the way to personalized medicine. The aim of this thesis was to overcome...

Rapid Prototyping of Organ-on-a-Chip Devices Using Maskless Photolithography

Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) and microfluidic devices are conventionally produced using microfabrication procedures that require cleanrooms, silicon wafers, and photomasks. The prototyping stage often requires multiple iterations of design steps. A simplified prototyping process could therefore offer major advantages. Here, we describe a rapid and...

OoC-integrated impedance spectroscopy for blood-brain barrier integrity analysis

The lack of reliable human physiology models in vitro combined with an ever-increasing set of health and safety requirements imposed by pharmaceutical regulatory agencies across the world is causing a concerningly low number of new drugs to reach the market. Organ-on-Chip (OoC) technology aims to aid faster development of new drugs by providing...

Portable and Integrated Organ-On-Chip Platform Using Off-the-shelf Components

Due to the developments of microfluidics, Organ-On-Chip (OOC) technology is developing rapidly in recent years. Microflow plays a vital role in OOC applications, thus a microfluidic platform that can generate high-quality flow is always needed. However, the existing OOC systems contain bulky peripheral components, incompact design and low...

Portable Parameter Analyser for Organs-on-Chip: Power Budget Analyses

Problems in drug development and personalised disease treatments are the main impulse for the development of OoCs. At the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials (ECTM) group at TU Delft an OoC sensor has been developed and the design is now at a stage where a system can be developed to take the sensor out of the initial research...

Portable Parameter Analyser for Organs-on-Chip: Calibration and GUI

Until now parameter analysers for Organ-on-Chips (OoCs) have needed bulky multi-probe setups that do not fit in biological research labs. For this reason a bachelor graduation project was proposed to get one of the sensors designed by the Electronic Components, Technology and Materials group (ECTM) out of the lab and into the hands of potential...

Portable Parameter Analyser for Organs-on-Chip: Charge Sensor Model

Real-time cell culture media monitoring can be conducted by Organ-on-Chip (OoC) ion-sensitive floating-gate field-effect transistor based sensors (ISFGFET). A method of modelling the sensor is described and implemented in the Advanced Design System (ADS) design and simulation software. The model is validated using measurement data of the sensor...

A 3D microelectrode array to record neural activity at different tissue depths

Measuring neuronal responses along all three spatial dimensions is the next step, beyond the capacity of established 2D microelectrode arrays (MEAs), to record electric activity inside tissues with highly accurate spatial resolution. This research presents silicon-based planar arrays of 3D microelectrodes, whereby each microelectrode supports...

Optimization of microporous PDMS membranes for Organ-on-Chip devices

Organ-on-chip (OOC) devices are micro-engineered three-dimensional (3D) biomimetic systems that can be used to create in vitro models of human tissue. They provide an alternative for conventional cell culture tools in pharmaceutical R&D. Moreover, these devices can contribute in research focused on understanding complex disease processes....