Design and Setup of a Sample Collection Method for a Fully Automated Microfluidic Cell Culturing System

• Main Author: Gunnar Sigvaldi Hilmarsson 1982-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Vélaverkfræði; Frumuræktun; Lífverkfræði; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/10811

Automated cell culturing experimental systems are crucial to further development of medicine and the understanding of cell inner workings. Their potential for throughput and high level of standardization and reproducibility enables researchers to analyze cell behavior with much greater efficiency than conventional means. The fully automated microfluidic cell culture system designed and built by the Quake Labs at the Department of Bioengineering, Stanford has been setup at the Center for System Biology at University of Iceland. This project is concerned with adding to the system ability to monitor cell behavior by designing a sample gathering system that collects spent cell culture media and delivers them into a standardized 96-well sample plate. The samples will then be analyzed using mass spectrometry to gather data for cellular metabolic modeling. The design uses the previously present system controls to extract samples from cell culturing chambers within the chip and deliver them to point of extraction. Pressurized air forces the samples into predetermined wells. A fraction collector guides each sample into a corresponding well. When the samples are inserted into a well, a pneumatic jack pierces through the rubber mat that seals each well off from the surroundings. The process is fully automated and the sample extraction scheduling is incorporated into the feeding schedule.