University of Tasmania, Australia

A Lab on a Chip for Nerve Cell Stress

Lab on a Chip form an ideal platform to study cells and physiological responses. Microfluidic chips are commercially available, providing neuroscientist to with a platform that offers compartmentalization, fluidic isolation, and improved organization over traditionally chaotic neuronal cell culture. The Lab on a Chip concept provides a much larger toolbox toolbox for neuroscience, including electrical, structural, surface chemistry, microfluidic and optical tools. Integrated electrodes allow for electric stimulation and controllable surface chemistry can be used to locally promote or inhibit adhesion and growth. The chip lay-out gives structural features controlling regions where axons and/or neurons can develop and provides a microfluidic network for targeted administration of drugs or nutrients. Finally, many materials used for the production of Lab on a Chip devices are optically transparent, making these devices compatible with microscopy and other optical techniques.

Researchers at the Menzies institute currently use the commercially available devices and have indicated that flexibility in the design of the microfluidic devices would strengthen their research, enabling a higher degree of originality and creativity. This project involves the creation of Lab-on-a-Chip devices to enable advances in neuroscience.