Dynamic Tissue Culture Model for Ex Vivo Recreation of the Mechanical Microenvironment of the Lung

The purpose of the research is to create a lung-on-a-chip device that simulates the mechanical microenvironment. Traditional cell culture methods fail to account for the effects of mechanical factors, such as strain and pressure, on lung cells. Because lung cells respond to mechanical factors as well as biochemical factors, a failure to introduce mechanical factors in the microenvironment of the cells results in inaccurate or incomplete results. The goal of this research is to create a dynamic model for cell culture and assess its performance when compared to traditional cell culture methods. The dynamic model provides researchers with critical information that the traditional culture method cannot supply, such as the behavior of a mechanosensitive protein under in vivo conditions. This new model will be used to study mechanosensitive channel defects that cause cystic fibrosis.

Research Supported by the National Science Foundation REU Program #EED-1460486