Engineering Commons^™

The Cooperative Effects Of Channel Length-Bias, Width Asymmetry, Gradient Steepness, And Contact-Guidance On Fibroblasts’ Directional Decision Making, Quang Long Pham

Dissertations

Cell migration in complex micro-environments, that are similar to tissue pores, is important for predicting locations of tissue nucleation and optimizing scaffold architectures. Firstly, how fibroblast cells - relevant to tissue engineering, affect each other’s directional decisions when encountered with a bifurcation of different channel lengths was investigated. It was found that cell sequence and cell mitosis influence the directional choices that the cells made while chemotaxing. Specifically, the fibroblasts chose to alternate between two possible paths - one longer and the other shorter - at a bifurcation. This finding was counter-intuitive given that the shorter path had a steeper …

Lntegration Of Conventional Lithography And Printing Processes As A Key Enabling Technology For Printed And Flexible Sensing Systems, Binu Baby Narakathu

Dissertations

Sensors, which are used ubiquitously in a wide variety of applications, are revolutionizing the already ever-changing world we live in by providing real-time information about our surroundings. This dissertation focuses on the integration of conventional photolithography and printing processes as a key enabling technology for printed and flexible sensing systems.

Initially, an efficient opto-electrochemical sensing system, for the dual detection of heavy metal compounds was successfully developed. A novel microfluidic flow cell, with a reservoir volume of 25 μl, was designed and fabricated using acrylic. An electrochemical sensor with gold (Au) interdigitated electrodes (IDE) on a glass substrate was photolithographically …