Biophysical and Biochemical Regulation of Cell Dynamics in Magnetically Assembled Cellular Structures.

Soluble signaling molecules and extracellular matrix (ECM) regulate cell dynamics in various biological processes. Wound healing assays are widely used to study cell dynamics in response to physiological stimuli. However, traditional scratch-based assays can damage the underlying ECM-coated substrates.

Adhesive-Based Fabrication Technique for Culture of Lung Airway Epithelial Cells with Applications in Cell Patterning and Microfluidics.

This work describes a versatile and cost-effective cell culture method for micropatterning and growing adherent cells on porous membranes using pressure-sensitive double-sided adhesives. This technique also allows cell culture using conventional methods and their easy integration into microfluidic chip devices. Adhesives can be used to form different patterns of cultured cells, which can be used for cell proliferation and wound-healing models.

Label-Free Magnetic-Field-Assisted Assembly of Layer-on-Layer Cellular Structures.

Controlled cell assembly is essential for fabricating in vitro 3D models that mimic the physiology of in vivo cellular architectures. Whereas tissue engineering techniques often rely on intrusive magnetic nanoparticles placed in cells and hydrogel encapsulation of cells to produce multilayered cellular constructs, we describe a high-throughput, label-free, and scaffold-free magnetic field-guided technique that assembles cells into a layered aggregate. An inhomogeneous magnetic field influences the diamagnetic cells suspended in a paramagnetic culture medium.

Fibroblasts Accelerate Formation and Improve Reproducibility of 3D Cellular Structures Printed with Magnetic Assistance.

Fibroblasts (mouse, NIH/3T3) are combined with MDA-MB-231 cells to accelerate the formation and improve the reproducibility of 3D cellular structures printed with magnetic assistance. Fibroblasts and MDA-MB-231 cells are cocultured to produce 12.5 : 87.

Acoustophoretic separation of infected erythrocytes from blood plasma in a microfluidic platform using biofunctionalized, matched-impedance layers.

Acoustophoresis is rapidly gaining prominence in the field of cell manipulation. In recent years, researchers have extensively used this method for separating different types of cells from the bulk fluid. In this paper, we propose a novel acoustophoresis-based technique to capture infected or abnormal erythrocytes from blood plasma.