Low cost rapid prototyping of a microfluidic bioreactor for electrochemical sensing of 3D cancer cell cultures

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major health issues worldwide and further understanding of the disease is needed. To achieve this goal, new tools need to be developed that enable early diagnosis and disease prevention. To study the different stage of cancer formation, progression and invasion, different in vitro models have been developed over the years. Mostly in vitro models use 2D cultures that do not mimic the real tissue. To overcome these limitations, novel 3D tumour models need to be developed. Microfluidic devices present interesting features such as low cost, low sample and low reagent consumption, high throughput, and miniaturization, and can easily be coupled with biosensors for different applications. In this master thesis a microfluidic bioreactor was developed to enable real time monitoring of cells in a 3D tissue engineered scaffold. The micro-reactor was fabricated in Poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) material, due to its high strength, excellent optical properties and low cost. An electrochemical biosensor was integrated in the bioreactor to monitor the pH in the cell model, as a representation of different cancer stages. Simultaneously, the system featured an optical window to allow for inspection and fluorescence microscopy.