Engineering Commons^™

Development Of An Angiogenic Tissue-On-A-Chip Microenvironment, Eric Stuehr

Master's Theses

Preclinical testing is necessary to investigate the safety and efficacy of novel therapeutics before moving to clinical trials, yet approximately 90% of these therapies fail once tested in humans. This has led to increased interest in developing robust preclinical models that accurately mimic the complex human in vivo physiology. Microfluidic devices that can introduce dynamic conditions to 3D cell/organoid cultures, also known as tissue-on-a-chip, have emerged as physiologically relevant in vitro preclinical models that can achieve high throughput screening of therapeutics. The research presented here aimed to develop an angiogenic environment within a novel microfluidic device to stimulate formation of …

Hypoxic Incubator Control System, Marina Zellers, Jennifer Rojas, Derek Tran

Biomedical Engineering

This paper describes the functionality of the current Hypoxic Incubator, a project started by BMED graduate students Simone Helfrich and Makenzie Jones, with the objective being to redesign the device to address potential areas of improvement. The hypoxic incubator has been designed to allow for the control of the O₂, CO₂, and N₂ levels such that researchers can grow and study cell culture in hypoxic conditions; however, its efficacy and efficiency are limited by the fact that it often overshoots the desired setpoints for O₂ and CO₂ in addition to being difficult to …

Investigation Of Dynamic Culture On Matrix-Derived Microcarriers As A Strategy To Modulate The Pro-Regenerative Phenotype Of Human Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells, Mckenna R. Tosh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pre-conditioning of adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) by tuning the cellular microenvironment during expansion has the potential to modulate their pro-regenerative functionality. The current study investigated the effects of microcarrier composition (decellularized adipose tissue versus collagen), oxygen tension (2% versus ~20% O₂) and stirring rate (static, 20, 40 rpm) on human ASCs cultured within spinner flask bioreactors. Dynamic culturing under 20% O₂ resulted in more consistent cell growth on both microcarrier substrates, leading to increases in microcarrier contraction and stiffness. Culturing on the microcarriers modulated the hASC immunophenotype, with varying CD90 and CD26 expression levels observed under the …

Investigating Tgf-Β1 And Fibronectin Signaling In Low Oxygen Environments, Caitlin E. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, second to lung cancer. It’s one of the most well-known cancers, with almost 300,000 new cases estimated to be diagnosed in 2023. Breast cancer often begins in ductal epithelial cells, and these cells will typically undergo a cellular transformation process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in early stages. Breast cancer becomes deadly when it reaches a metastatic stage. As a part of the metastatic process, transformed cells will conduct remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) to allow for migration of an otherwise non-migratory cell type.

As dense tumors form, …