Microfluidic biomechanical and electrical devices for rapid analysis of cells and organelles

This thesis focuses on micro devices aimed at rapid analysis of cells and subcellular organelles. These devices take advantage of microfabrication techniques to create environment suitable for biomechanical and biochemical stimulation of cells, to break cell membranes to extract the intracellular materials, and to separate or concentrate organelles and proteins of interest. These procedures greatly reduce the amounts of samples and reagents necessary and the process time required from their macro counterparts. Moreover, they demonstrate operational advantages, such as lower voltages, less heating, and no significant gas formation in electrolysis, over their macroscopic counterparts. First in line of the process stream are a series of microfluidic devices developed for the purpose of studying cell adhesion on biomaterials. Numerical models are developed to aid the quantitative analysis of fluid shear stresses on cells in these devices. The experimental results demonstrate that these devices are capable of capturing ligand-density-dependent, shear-dependent, and growth-factor-dependent adhesion behavior of cell cultures. Next, two electrical microfluidic devices are developed for the purpose of cell lysis and organelle separation. Both devices are fabricated using electroplating techniques to create three-dimensional electrodes, and lithography to accommodate flexible designs in the fluid channels. Simple electrical models for cells and organelles are used to guide the design and operation of the miniaturized electroporation device that can successfully break open cells and release their content.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Lu, Hang, 1977-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Klavs F. Jensen and Martin A. Schmidt.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7996

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/7996