This thesis describes the development of microfluidic (MF) platforms for the study of biological and chemical processes. In particular the thesis is divided into two distinct parts: (i) development of a MF methodology to generate tunable cell-laden microenvironments for detailed studies of cell behavior, and (ii) the design and fabrication of MF reactors for studies of chemical reactions.
First, this thesis presented the generation of biopolymer microenvironments for cell studies. In the first project we demonstrated a high-throughput MF system for generating cell-laden agarose microgels with a controllable ratio of two different types of cells. The MF co-encapsulation system was shown to be a robust method for identifying autocrine and/or paracrine dependence of specific cell subpopulations.
In the second project we studied the effect of the mechanical properties on the behavior of acute myeloid leukemia (AML2) cancer cells. Cell-laden macroscopic agarose gels were prepared at varying agarose concentrations. A modest range of the elastic modulus of the agarose gels were achieved, ranging from 0.62 kPa to 20.21 kPa at room temperature. We observed a pronounced decrease in cell proliferation in stiffer gels when compared to the gels with lower elastic moduli.
The second part of the thesis focuses on the development of MF platforms for studying chemical reactions. In the third project presented in this thesis, we exploited the temperature dependent solubility of CO2 in order to: (i) study the temperature mediated CO2 transfer between the gas and the various liquid phases on short time scales, and (ii) to generate bubbles with a dense layer of colloid particles (armoured bubbles).
The fourth project involved the fabrication of a multi-modal MF device with integrated analytical probes. The MF device comprised a pH, temperature, and ATR-FTIR probes for in-situ analysis of chemical reactions in real-time. Furthermore, the MF reactor featured a temperature controlled feedback system capable of maintaining on-chip temperatures at flow rates up to 50 mL/hr.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/35077 |
| Date | 04 March 2013 |
| Creators | Tumarkin, Ethan |
| Contributors | Kumacheva, Eugenia |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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