High Throughput Screening of Tissue Specific Biomaterials

High-throughput screening platforms have been used to investigate protein-protein binding interactions, drug toxicity, and gene expression to quantify cell viability, proliferation and differentiation in response to toxins, drugs and soluble factors. Cell behavior in 3D has largely been confined to a single scaffold type, and these assays have not been used to screen for more complex cell processes, such as migration. We propose the development of a flexible platform to investigate changes in number, morphology and migration for the rapid screening of biomaterials using a common flatbed scanner. We assert that this type of rapid screening may be valuable in the rational design of tissue-specific biomaterials. To illustrate this point, Schwann cell (SC) migration and repopulation have been found to be essential for axonal re-growth through the injury site in peripheral nerve injuries.It is known that SC migration and spreading are not supported in type I Collagen, while the incorporation of laminin and Collagen IV (found in Matrigel) promotes cell spreading and migration. We demonstrate sensitivity to changes in spot size, seeding density, composition and migration in a 3D biomaterial using a flatbed scanner and have confirmed these measurements using traditional microscopy. This type of screen will be vital in the rapid development and efficient screening of novel scaffolds in the development of novel cell and tissue optimized biomaterials. The proposed work evaluates a new assay to rapidly assess cell number, response to material composition and migration in 3D. Rapid assessment of biomaterials will facilitate the design of an optimized biomaterial supportive of SC migration for neural tissue engineering applications, which is currently identified to be a rate-limiting factor in vivo. Examination of neural and non-neural response will facilitate the development of a tissue-specific biomaterial for neural engineering applications and can be further extended to other tissue engineering applications for cell-specific biomaterials.