Assessing the impact of cell positioning via micropatterning on throughput, precision, and reproducibility of cell-based tests

In recent years, the concern with data reproducibility in preclinical research data has increased significantly. A survey performed by Nature showed more than 70% of published research is not reproducible and the issue is more concerning when it comes to biomedical research with only 10% of published work able to be reproduced. Scientists study the effect of drugs on cells before human trials and market entry. While the biological complexity of cells allows for drug response modeling, it also introduces a large number of potential sources of noise and variability that can hamper their predictive potential. The overall goal of this proposal is to study the influence of 2-dimensional geometrical confinement of cells on precision and reproducibility of cell-based tests. If successful, the innovative platform will be commercialized by TissueX Technologies as a new standard platform for cell culture systems in preclinical drug development.

Faculty Supervisor:

Axel Guenther

Student:

Nimalan Thavandiran;Mohsen Afshar

Partner:

TissueX Technologies Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - biomedical

Sector:

Other

University:

University of Toronto