Imperial College, London – Scholarship in Bio-Inspired Devices for Greek-Cypriot PhD students
The PhD project funded by the A. G. Leventis Foundation at Imperial College in London was titled ‘Micro-engineered Platforms for Growing, Controlling and Monitoring Cells In-vitro’ and focused on developing culture constructs that control cell maturation and function by regulating culture conditions, particularly physical constraints to cell growth and application of static stretch. In preliminary results with cardiomyocytes, self-alignment of the cells has been achieved on flexible substrates through standard microfabrication techniques, enabling a cell morphology similar to the anisotropic architecture of native myocardium, while preserving the cells’ contractile properties. This technology has recently been transferred to commercial state-of-the-art multielectrode arrays for comprehensive interrogation of the cells’ electrophysiology. In addition, chemical sensing modalities are currently being incorporated into these bioengineered substrates to investigate real-time extra/intra-cellular activity. The long-term goal is to deliver a powerful, universal tool with high scientific and commercial impact in drug development, disease modelling and, eventually, engineered patient-specific organs.
Grants given:
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
