An Integrated and Modular Compartmentalized Microfluidic System with Tunable Electrospun Porous Membranes for Epithelialized Organs-on-a-Chip.

A modular and 3D compartmentalized microfluidic system with electrospun porous membranes (PMs) for epithelialized organ-on-a-chip systems is presented. Our novel approach involves direct deposition of polymer nanofibers onto a patterned poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrate using electrospinning, resulting in an integrated PM within the microfluidic chip. The in situ deposition of the PM eliminates the need for additional assembly processes.

Hepatic spheroid-on-a-chip: Fabrication and characterization of a spheroid-based model of the human liver for drug screening applications.

The integration of microfabrication and microfluidics techniques into cell culture technology has significantly transformed cell culture conditions, scaffold architecture, and tissue biofabrication. These tools offer precise control over cell positioning and enable high-resolution analysis and testing. Culturing cells in 3D systems, such as spheroids and organoids, enables recapitulating the interaction between cells and the extracellular matrix, thereby allowing the creation of human-based biomimetic tissue models that are well-suited for pre-clinical drug screening.

Custom-made holey graphene scanning probe block co-polymer lithography.

Oxidative chemical etching of metal nanoparticles (NPs) to produce holey graphene (hG) suffers from the presence of aggregated NPs on the graphene surface triggering heterogeneous etching rates and thereby producing irregular sized holes. To encounter such a challenge, we investigated the use of scanning probe block co-polymer lithography (SPBCL) to fabricate precisely positioned silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on graphene surfaces with exquisite control over the NP size to prevent their aggregation and consequently produce uniformly distributed holes after oxidative chemical etching. SPBCL experiments were carried out printing an ink suspension consisting of poly(ethylene oxide--2-vinylpyridine) and silver nitrate on a graphene surface in a selected pattern under controlled environmental and instrumental parameters followed by thermal annealing in a gaseous environment to fabricate AgNPs.

Pharmacokinetics-On-a-Chip: In Vitro Microphysiological Models for Emulating of Drugs ADME.

Despite many ongoing efforts across the full spectrum of pharmaceutical and biotech industries, drug development is still a costly undertaking that involves a high risk of failure during clinical trials. Animal models played vital roles in understanding the mechanism of human diseases. However, the use of these models has been a subject of heated debate, particularly due to ethical matters and the inevitable pathophysiological differences between animals and humans.

Polymeric Reactor for the Synthesis of Superparamagnetic-Thermal Treatment of Breast Cancer.

Engineered superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have been studied extensively for their localized homogeneous heat generation in breast cancer therapy. However, challenges such as aggregation and inability to produce sub-10 nm SPIONs limit their potential in magnetothermal ablation. We report a facile, efficient, and robust in situ method for the synthesis of SPIONs within a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) reactor adsorbed onto reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (rGO) via the microwave hydrothermal route.