Introduction to Biomedical Engineering HW2

B04901166 電機四 陳培鳴

Q1
There are two major advantages of using microfluidics to develop drugs. Compared with
traditional ​in vitro​ cell testing, where cells are placed in non-native environments like
algar plates, microfluidics allow cells to be examined under similar conditions as they
are in human, for example through introduction of physical stress, air flow, or blood flow.
Compared with animal testing, microfluidics directly use human cells, as opposed to that
of other model organisms, as experimental subjects. This means that the results will be
more applicable to humans.

Q2
Organ-on-a-chip is a microfluidic device that can replicate the surrounding environment
of cells inside human body on a chip, thereby helping scientists gauge the influence of
drugs to human body more precisely. The chip is made of flexible polymers with tiny
tubes. Cells are arranged in between those tubes. To model body environment of, say
lung cells, one side of the tubes are filled with flowing air while the other side blood.
Furthermore, the polymer chip is periodically stretched and loosened to mimic the
respiratory movement. Organ-on-a-chip is a useful tool in itself, but what makes it more
promising is that we can connect different “organs” together to form a human-on-a-chip.
We can then study how a particular drug will affect the entire human body by observing
the change of those organ chips after administration.

Q3
ASSURED challenge is an initiative by UN which encourages bioengineers to develop
diagnostics that are

A​ffordable by people at risk

S​ensitive, few false negative cases
S​pecific, few false positive cases
U​ser-friendly, simple to perform by people with little training
R​apid treatment and ​R​obust storage
E​quipment-free
and ​D​elivered

Q4: on the other side

Q4
The team creates the programmable paper-based microfluidic device by making use of
capillary phenomenon of water. The motivation for this is that many laboratory-based
assays require hand-pipetting to add different solutions. Outside laboratory, however,
there are no biomedical professionals so these hand-pipetting must be replaced with
other mechanics. We illustrate their approach in figure 1. Suppose we want to add
solution A, B, and C successively to the assay. At first, the solutions are dipped on
paper slips, all connected to test substrates. Those slips extend downward to the water
box below but with different lengths. Water is soaked upward, carrying solutions along
with it. Since solution A is nearest to the substrates, it arrives first while B and C are still
on their way. After a while, water level drops below the tip of paper slip of A, so solution
A stops its supply. By continuing this way, we can mimic the hand-pipetting procedure
with paper device.

Figure 1.