Tuesday  |  Salon 8  |  10:00 AM–10:20 AM

#15795, TBI On-a-chip

The blood-brain barrier prohibits the in-vitro study of injury-specific biomarkers within the brain using traditional blood concentration pharmacokinetic models. Thus in vitro methods are needed to detect cellular injury response to various combinations of traumatic brain injury (TBI) relevant strain and strain rates. A quantitative description of cellular injury from our TBI on-a-chip will add much-needed metadata to existing experimental methods. Combining these data will allow for enhanced design of many technologies meant to diagnose or prevent TBI. Here we develop a microfluidic device that simultaneously injures multiple spheroids under a continuous perfusive flow. This device uses multiple traps to locate cortical organoids in a flow field. Micropillars aligned with each organoid hang from a thin circular membrane that deforms in response to an increase in pressure in a chamber directly above. This device represents the first-of-its-kind impact device for organoids on-a-chip. Optical access allows for in-situ measurement of strain and strain rate applied to the organoid and allows for direct post-injury analysis via immunostaining. Detection of injury-specific biomarkers occurs downstream and allows for the quantification of the injury response in the absence of morphological changes. In total, this platform will test whether TBI-mediated activation of microglia and astrocytes are dependent on strain magnitude and rate.

Alexander McGhee   University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mauricio Araiza   University of Wisconsin-Madison
Christian Franck   University of Wisconsin-Madison