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

Master thesis (2020)

Authors

H. Zhu Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

M.K. Ghatkesar Micro and Nano Engineering - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 1)
G. Özkayar Micro and Nano Engineering - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2020 Haoyu Zhu
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Published Date

08-09-2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

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-quality fluid flow (bubbles and fluctuations). To deal with these issues, a portable and integrated OOC flow control platform system has been developed. The platform is designed for three kinds of popular Organ-On-Chip models: Lung-On-Chip, Gut-On-Chip and Tissue-On-Chip,and is able to change the fluid (both liquid and gas) automatically and control their flow rate on the chip. The fluid actuation is based on a stable vacuum tank and therefore can create high-quality flow without fluctuations. PID flow controllers are used to maintain the desired flow rate under a constant pressure difference created by the vacuum pump. By integrating with other predetermined off-the-shelf components with small footprints, the platform realized is 290mm long, 240mm wide and 220mm tall, and weighs 4.8 kg in total. The system is highly modular with capability to exchange the necessary components, and can be placed under the optical microscope (upright or inverted) to monitor inside the microfludic chip without having to disconnect. It can also be placed inside an incubator for continuous controlled fluid flow in the OOC. The system works on a rechargeable battery that can be easily changed to support long-term cell culture. The setup consumes a minimum of 7.2W and a maximum of 11.5W power.