Microfluidic platforms are extremely promising for cell and tissue culture by greatly reducing costs while opening doors of opportunity for biological assays that were not feasible previously. The capability of precise spatiotemporal control of microenvironments enables new assays to probe the physiological and pathological behaviors of cells and tissues. Integration of advanced sensing technologies with microfluidics allows for probing phenomena within cells and tissue. This dissertation presents microfluidic platforms for localized probing of whole retina tissue, which has the advantages of easy accessibility, highly organized structure, and unique light sensitivity. These platforms allow for spatially isolated chemical and electrical stimulation and detection of cell signaling events in whole retina tissue. The Retina-on-a-Chip platform has achieved localized point application of reagents to the surface of the retina while maintaining tissue health over a long-term culture. When integrated with graphene transistors, this platform provides the opportunity to also probe electrical signaling events. As a key component in the Retina-on-a-Chip platform, the thin-film PDMS layer was found challenging to fabricate, thus current fabrication techniques were analyzed and new approaches were examined.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07202016-114127 |
| Date | 21 July 2016 |
| Creators | Dodson, Kirsten Heikkinen |
| Contributors | Deyu Li, Rebecca M. Sappington, Haoxiang Luo, Yaqiong Xu, Leon Bellan |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07202016-114127/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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