Smart organ-on-chip platform based on higher order multimode acoustic Lamb waves

Description du projet

Développer la technologie rentable des organes sur puce

Les avancées réalisées dans le domaine de la micro-ingénierie et la généralisation de la numérisation ont favorisé le développement de nouvelles technologies dans un éventail de secteurs. La biologie est l’un de ces secteurs, avec l’apparition de la technologie des organes sur puce (OoC pour Organ on-chip). Cette technologie serait d’une grande aide pour les chercheurs dans la découverte et le développement de médicaments, améliorerait la précision de la médecine personnalisée et réduirait le recours à l’expérimentation animale. Malheureusement, sa complexité rend le passage du laboratoire à la fabrication à grande échelle et à l’utilisation commerciale difficile. Le projet SmOoC, financé par l’UE, accompagnera cette transition en introduisant un système OoC intelligent qui utilise des ondes de Lamb multimodes dans un système microfluidique. Cela permettra la production et l’application rentables des OoC.

Objectif

Organ on chip (OoC) is a remarkable example of the convergence of biology and microengineering. OoC has a great potential in revolutionizing the current existing in-vitro approach in drug discovery and development, resulting in a reduction in the needs of animal experiment and accelerate the research and development process for future precision and personalised medicine. However, the complexity of the system is a hurdle in the transfer of OoC system from laboratory to large scale manufacturing and commercial application. The miniaturisation and integration of sensing and actuation components is an important aspect to be addressed to ensure manufacturability of the system. Moreover, a closed loop control system is required to create a smart OoC system that can operate dynamically to process the information and make decisions in a predictive or adaptive manner.

The objective of this proposed research project is to develop a smart OoC system by utilising multimode Lamb waves for sensing, actuation, and control, integrated within a microfluidic system. The action will combine the researcher expertise and experience in higher order multimode Lamb wave, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and smart system integration, with the supervisors and the host institute experiences in acoustic wave sensor and the integration with microfluidics for biological application. Furthermore, the action will be complemented by a secondment in a non-academic partner that is intended for translational research to bring the technological solution into medical practice. The successful result of this action will contribute to the development of cost effective, automated smart OoC system that is suitable for large scale manufacturing to bridge the gap between laboratory and commercial application for drug discovery and future personalised medicine