Development and Validation of the Actuation and Control System for a Gut-on-Chip Device
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Date
2024-05Author
Kekkou, KyriakiPublisher
Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου, Πολυτεχνική Σχολή / University of Cyprus, Faculty of EngineeringPlace of publication
CyprusGoogle Scholar check
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Organs-on-chip are microfluidic devices that recapitulate the micro-environment of biological tissues. They offer a platform to study the organ’s physiology, in health and disease, and enable highly controlled experiments for therapeutics, drugs, as well as more basic biological studies. This technology can replace animal testing, which is clearly a cruel, unethical, and ineffective way to carry out experiments. It has been established that results from animal tests are unreliable due to the differences between them and the human body. Additionally, organ-on-chip platforms are cost-effective and easily customizable. This work focuses on the development of a “Gut-on-a-chip”. Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer makes up 26% of the new cancer cases worldwide. GI cancer is one of the biggest challenges that the modern world has to face and its early detection and treatment are among the priorities of the cancer research community. Through this work, we built the hardware related to a gut-on-a-chip device. Specifically, we designed and fabricated the microfluidic device using soft lithography and 3D printing, as well as the pneumatic and fluidic controls to actuate the device. The mechanical actuation was measured using optical microscopy and image processing.