Microfluidics advances have hovered on the horizon as a “new way” for some time. The creation and development of new drugs can cost millions, yet many end up being recalled for toxicity, or just plain not as effective in humans as they are in lab animals.

The authors of a 2019 statistical analysis, “Impact of organ-on-a-chip technology on pharmaceutical R&D costs,” describe how high drug prices are driven by the huge expense of creating new product. They report that 60-75 percent of new drugs that succeed in non-human phases fail in later phases. “Better predictive models are needed,” they concluded, in something of an understatement.

Better predictive models include microfluidic platforms called organs-on-a-chip. These platforms are engineered to improve on the prognostic capacity of animal or in vitro models — which too often inaccurately simulate human physiology. As controlled microenvironments with vasculature perfusion that mimic the structure and function of human tissue, organ-a-chip technology has the potential to decrease the conventional roadblock of extensive development time frames, and their choking costs.

Although actual expenditures of private pharmaceutical companies are not made public, the statistical analysts estimate the potential of microfluidics to reduce R&D costs at 10-25 percent. The authors granularly analyzed some development costs by phase. They concluded that organ-on-a-chip technology could significantly reduce R&D costs by reducing the length of the early-stage research process.

The analysts note that, “Experts believed that the technology will help to make quicker and more precise decisions” during initial stages of research. One analyst said that if organ-on-chip was capable of identifying appropriate biomarkers, it would become the “Holy Grail” of biotechnology.

The authors do not pretend change arrives astride a fast horse. “The extent to which organ-on-a-chip can evolve in terms of predictability and applicability to the human biophysiology is yet to be seen,” they write. “Challenges of automation, parallelization, standardization and ease of use remain.”

Concerns driving the current conversation among experts focus on the magnitude of transformation. The tradition of utilizing in vitro and animal models is deeply ingrained and rooted, to state one obvious funding barrier. Results anticipated by innovators and early adopters can “take much longer to materialize when meeting the skepticism of the late majority and laggards.”

Not only are microfluidic devices pushing for legitimacy in the minds of some, but the very methods used to create them are often never-before-seen tools butting up against history as well. 3D bioprinting comes to mind.

There are pre-publication reports concerning vascularized micro-tissues for many major organs. For example, micro-tissued pancreatic islets have potential for insulin regulation and insulinomas. Liver buds are being researched. There has been progress in bioprinting vascularized thyroid glands.

In addition, genome engineering techniques may create genetic disease models using microfluidic platforms. Personalized medicine applications may include drug screening for patient-specific tumors.

In their study titled “Long-term Expanding Human Airway Organoids for Disease Modeling,” lung specialists wrote that “human airway organoids represent versatile models for the in vitro study of hereditary, malignant, and infectious pulmonary disease.”

The world certainly does have an “infectious pulmonary disease” on board.

Can regulatory shibboleths and personal proclivities accommodate the pace of innovation? Despite the complexity of research, the degree of potential is climbing. According to a recent Research and Markets report, microfluidics technology is replicating many functions of traditional healthcare, including clinical diagnostics, point-of-care diagnostics and drug delivery: “The global microfluidics market size is projected to reach USD 44.0 billion by 2025 from USD 15.7 billion in 2020.”

One research team recently described why “frontier technological tools by which infections are studied and new drugs and vaccines are tested” include “microfluidic chambers for the culture of organoids.” Given they are Milan, Italy-based, this team comprises COVID-19 experts.

The pandemic-weary world awaits “frontier tools.”

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Microfluidics and Approval Bottlenecks in a Pandemic appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

A team of scientists from various institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy, investigated the mechanics: how do these bacteria transport electrons across cell walls? They probed how Listeria bacteria residing in the human intestine transport electrons — in the form of tiny currents — through their cell wall.

The findings were just one example of bacteria in the human gut that regularly produce electricity. It seems that hundreds of other bacteria may be employing similar, but so-far-unidentified processes. A wide range of bacteria types might be conducting a similar transport of electrons outside their cell wall. But findings suggested that Listeria appeared to use a method that is different from other electricity-producing bacteria.

Does this mean these bacteria could predictably produce electricity outside of their normal environment? The researchers noted that these findings point toward the potential creation of batteries from microbes.

The traditional medical focus has been understanding how bacteria infect — or maintain — a healthy gut. But the findings about electrons have spawned new questions: Is it possible that microbe-derived batteries could generate electricity in large waste treatment plants? Could batteries built from microbes feasibly generate electricity on a grand scale?

“While scientists have found bacteria that produce electricity in exotic environments like mines and the bottoms of lakes, researchers have missed a source closer to home: the human gut,” the researchers noted.

Recent advances outline the potential for microfluidic engineering of microbiomes’ microbial interactions. Microfluidic chips have the capacity to fuel the automated assembly and analysis of microbial communities.

In addition, novel tools provide a framework to evaluate how metabolic networks drive biological processes. There are new platforms for designing microbiomes with specific properties, and to describe what principles govern their interactions. A goal is identifying processes to be manipulated and monitored, including the prediction of metabolic flux throughout interacting networks.

Mapping gut bacteria types in the human microbiome remains incomplete, due to its wide range of bacterial diversity. Technical roadblocks have included figuring out how to isolate single-bacteria. But a new microfluidic-emulsion device has created microdroplets to capture a single bacterium. Single-bacteria isolation could reveal which properties yield the most insight about infection in humans. Additional studies have described microfluidic approaches to creating realistic in-vitro models of the human intestinal microbiome.

It’s been known for a long time that the body produces electricity. Electrocardiograms measure the heart’s electricity. Electroencephalography measures electrical activity in the brain. Brushing of very dry human hair generates static electricity — with results ranging from being a nuisance, to pain. But the idea that it might be possible to capture enough body-generated electricity for outside-the-body uses, is new.

The human microbiome contains communities of microbes, bacteria, viruses and fungi that function together. Animals have microbiomes controlling their health or sickness too. Soil, water and rocks also contain microbiomes that mediate chemical changes.

Within a microbiome, microbes move around and fuel each other in complicated ways. How we eat, live and use medicine impacts how microbes will interact with each other — working together to maintain health, or to cause disease. Some human microbes cause sickness, while others sustain life.

What’s next for the concept of microbe-produced batteries? Investors are more often mulling partnerships for cutting-edge innovations, from Artificial Intelligence to genetics. A recent Pharmacy and Therapeutics Journal report, “The Human Microbiome Market,” confirms that 260 microbiome therapeutics are currently being evaluated in different stages of development. “The microbiome-based medical products market can be expected to witness substantial growth over the coming decade,” according to the report. “The concept of microbiome-based therapeutics has generated significant enthusiasm within the medical science community, defining a new frontier in the field of medicine.”

A new frontier indeed. These particular findings address two compelling issues: medical advances, and also urgent energy-production problems.

This unique pairing would seem to check a lot of boxes for investors.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Generating Electricity by Making Batteries from Human Microbes? Microfluidics Hold the Key appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

For example, the density of metabolites in sweat — along with its ease of collection from skin pores — make it a useful biofluidic candidate for analysis. One recent study looked at how microchannels and micro reservoirs, pre-filled with fluorescent probes that react to target analytes in sweat, can perform quantitative analysis. To capture sweat, fluorometric sensing modalities were integrated into a skin-interfaced microfluidic system that was paired with a smartphone-based imaging module. This method yielded an accurate measurement of biomarkers in sweat.

In another recent study, researchers developed wearable sensors to monitor biomolecule levels by combining continuous fluid sampling with in-situ analysis. Depending upon the target biomolecule, the particular assay was interchangeable.

The microfluidic device featured a droplet-flow method for timing, and a micropump to produce nanolitre-sized droplets. Biomarker variations within fluids, over time, yield insight into tissue physiology and may help to create personalized treatments.

The study’s palm-sized sensor autonomously detected deviations from steady-state level.“We demonstrate how the sensor can track perturbed glucose and lactate levels in dermal tissue with results in close agreement with standard off-line analysis and consistent with changes in peripheral blood levels,” the authors wrote.

Biomarker concentrations fluctuate continuously, as does chemical signalling. The capacity for continuous measurement of these dynamics has significant implications.

Many current point-of-care devices are single-measurement tools. The use of microfluidics for continuous monitoring has been strained where microfluidic systems rely upon bulky laboratory equipment such as syringe pumps and microscopes — impractical as wearable devices. But recent advances address this.

For example, the linear nature of microscale flow has required many external control devices. Another recent study, by an international research team, highlights the design of networks with a nonlinear relation between flow rate and its applied pressure. This relation can be harnessed to switch the direction of internal flows by manipulating the input and output pressures.

Using rigid polymer channels to carry water, the investigators showed that these networks demonstrate a fluid version of Braess’s Paradox: closing an intermediate channel resulted in a higher rather than lower, total flow rate. These findings are scalable and can implement flow routing with multiple switches. Practical applications can encompass built-in control mechanisms in microfluidic networks, furthering the creation of portable systems — such as wearable healthcare technologies

These new findings seem to have clear advantages, yet final shepherding of new findings toward commercialization remains the most challenging step. A new device can fail clinically, or it can run out of funding, miscalculate the market, or collide with regulations, according to Georgia Tech benchtop-to-bedside expert Tiffany Wilson.

“Find out about clinical workflow and how health care operates, then maybe decide not to pursue the prototype you had planned, but work on a new one instead,” she warns. “It generally doesn’t work to take what was built in the lab and make the same thing with medical-grade materials, and unfortunately, many researchers don’t realize this until it’s too late.”

And, she notes, “Words matter. For example, if I want to market my new catheter as ‘pain-free,’ the FDA may want me to conduct an expensive clinical trial, but if I take that same catheter and market it as ‘low friction,’ which is why it’s pain-free, then I can demonstrate that with simple bench tests.”

The variety of viewpoints should not be underestimated. “Many stakeholders need their questions answered,” Wilson said. The clinician is only a part of the equation. The hospital supply chain may not be able to handle it. Regulators may not approve it.

“Also, know your competition,” Wilson advised. “Are you more competitive than the current standard of care?”

Yes, we are, microfluidics pioneers can now confirm.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Wearable Technology Innovations are Fueled by Microfluidics Research appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

Financial potential is being matched medical potential, as microenvironments play a role in new findings about stem cell treatment that may speed patients’ recovery from chemotherapy and radiation. And microfluidics advances have also led to a new tool for diabetes research.

Bone marrow stem cells produce the body’s blood and immune cells, but chemotherapy and radiation suppress that production, and it can take weeks or months for the blood and immune systems to recover. Results of a recent study by UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center scientists showed how a newly developed drug compound might hasten the blood system’s recovery after radiation and chemotherapy in mice. Some of the heretofore unknown capacity of microenvironments were critical to this type of investigation.

“The potency of this compound in animal models was very high,” said study co-author Dr. John Chute. “It accelerated the recovery of blood stem cells, white blood cells and other components of the blood system necessary for survival. If found to be safe in humans, it could lessen infections and allow people to be discharged from the hospital earlier.”

Looking at both mouse — and human stem cells (in dishes) — growth factors were observed to promote the recruitment of stem cells from degraded bone marrow, which fueled proliferation and reconstitution. “We’re very excited about the potential medical applications of these findings,” said Chute.

The new compound enabled the blood system to recover sooner from cancer treatments in mice because it was able to stop the molecular process that slows blood stem cell regeneration. “The new compound lifts molecular ‘brakes’ that normally slow the regeneration of blood stem cells,” according to the team.

The new compound speeded up the regeneration of both mouse and human blood stem cells after exposure to radiation. The bloodstream’s own regenerative capacity seemed to power up healing. Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood cells, is controlled by chemical signals, yet many of the mechanisms by which blood cell regeneration uses bone marrow have been unknown. The study highlights the process by which growth factors recruit stem cells from the bone marrow microenvironment. Advances detailing bone marrow’s microenvironments are a significant contribution.

Microfluidic devices can be monitored and imaged using fluorescent markers for tracking, and microenvironments needed to be precisely controlled for this investigation.

Among the mice that received high doses of radiation, almost all that were given the compound survived; more than half of those that did not receive the compound died. Mice that received chemotherapy but no compound had low levels of white blood cells and neutrophils — which fight bacteria — after two weeks; in mice that were treated, white blood cell counts recovered to normal levels within two weeks. The researchers are now refining the process, in preparation for human trials.

Microfluidics research also has another new arrow in its quiver, in the form of a new tool for diabetes research, developed by a team based at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The device improves aspects of studying diabetes, including upgrading the screening process prior to transplantation of insulin-producing cells into a patient.

The team noted that although microfluidic devices have been used to address research limitations in the past, previous adoption has been hampered by “incompatibility of most device materials with large-scale manufacturing. We designed and built a thermoplastic, microfluidic-based Islet-on-a-Chip compatible with commercial fabrication methods, that automates islet loading, stimulation, and insulin sensing.”

The design of their “Islet-on-a-Chip” is based on the human pancreas, where islets process non-stop, incoming information about glucose levels, and adjust insulin production accordingly. The new, automated, miniature device gives results in real-time, which can speed up clinical decision-making.

In addition to diabetes research, the device may prove useful in other areas. Its core technology can be modified to sense an array of microfluidic systems. Because it can detect cell secretions continuously, it can be employed to investigate how cells communicate using protein signals, throughout the body.

“It was exciting to see our lab’s method for measuring islet function taken forward from individual cells to much bigger groups of cells, and incorporated into a device that can be used widely in the community,” said co-author Dr. Michael Roper. “Now, we have a device that integrates glucose delivery, islet positioning and capture, reagent mixing, and insulin detection, and requires far fewer reagents. So labs can use it to do more experiments at the same cost, using a much shorter and easier process.”

Scalable, easier, shorter, and cost-contained. That says it all.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Industry Predictions of Microfluidics Commercialization are Buoyed by Recent Advances in Diabetes and Cancer Research appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

Current technical advances, and financial predictions for scaling up, are keeping pace with each other. Both are equally varied, complex and wide-ranging. For example, some forecasts predict an increased demand for portable devices that promote the microfluidics market, by providing fast results and timely diagnoses. Reliable microfluidic methods have numerous applications in healthcare, because they make handling of fluids smoother and easier than in the past — an entirely viable alternative to customary lab techniques. However, the very same forecasts include the caution that the high price of regulatory approvals, and delays in developing nations, could simultaneously slow global growth within that market.

Although striking, myriad other advances will be heavily anchored to thorny cost obstacles too. One 2019 research design incorporates microfluidics-based methods to investigate membraneless organelles, and unveils the processes that link organelles with protein-aggregation diseases, including neurodegenerative conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease. Another new report covers spontaneous oscillations in microfluidic droplet networks: This 2019 development offers a better understanding of blood flow’s oscillations within microvascular networks.

In a 2019 Developmental Cell article, analysts conclude that microfluidic techniques provide precision tools for biology because they further “manipulation of biological specimens in entirely new ways.” These entirely new ways include “extraordinary spatiotemporal resolution, revealing mechanistic insights that would otherwise remain hidden.”In addition, gene expression research has put microfluidic devices to work, in pursuit of clarity.

A recent Trends in Biotechnology article describes microfluidics that has “revolutionized biotechnology assays. . . Combining deep learning (to analyze data) with microfluidics (to acquire data) represents an emerging opportunity in biotechnology that remains largely untapped.”

Simultaneously, insights about “largely untapped, new ways” are being tempered by practicality. For example, the titles of some recent studies answer the question, “What’s in a name?”:

• “Single-cell RNA-seq of rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue using low-cost microfluidic instrumentation”
• “Printed low-cost microfluidic analytical devices based on a transparent substrate”
• “Low-Cost and Rapid-Production Microfluidic Electrochemical Double-Layer Capacitors for Fast and Sensitive Breast Cancer Diagnosis”
• “Impedimetric array in polymer microfluidic cartridge for low-cost point-of-care diagnostics”
• “Robust Sample Preparation on Low-Cost Microfluidic Biochips”
• And so on . . .

Where is the unknown and how will does one boldly go there? Or carefully go there? Or strategically go there?

The unknown is how costs will be controlled. Going there will mean “largely untapped, new ways” yoked to visionary pragmatism.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Mapping Microfluidics’ Future: “Where is the Unknown and How Can We Boldly Go There?” appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

Recent findings by a team of engineering and medical scientists at Stanford University shed new light on how cell components move around and self-renew. Part of the study’s focus was on the link between microtubules and self-organization.

Microtubules, hollow tubes about 25 nm in diameter, are critical for maintaining cell shape and movements. The study analyzed what role microtubules have in maintenance, and found that microtubules are continuously losing and gaining molecules. Understanding the mechanics of how microtubules move around and contribute to regeneration helps to light affordable paths to wound healing in humans and animals.

Cells are known to self-organize at the direction of particular protein structures, via recognized regulators of the organization. However, the Stanford team observed that some cells self-organized in the absence of their known regulators. An interaction between microtubules and other molecules on the membrane surface was the reason.

This observation raised questions about what role microtubules play in the regeneration when other elements of the system are paralyzed. The researchers described how microtubules seemed to be involved in some minimal requirements for cellular self-organization. Identifying this process opens the door to greater understanding of cell renewal.

Clarifying the precise functions of microfluidics has paved the way to viable organoids, on which assessments can be done without having to conduct tests on an entire organism. For example, the University of British Columbia researchers recently were able to architect human vascular organoids that were nurtured to duplicate diabetic blood vessels, and can be used as test models.

The UBC scientists were able to grow human blood vessels as organoids in a lab, for the first time. This spawns investigation of treatments for vascular diseases by highlighting how changes to blood vessels occur. Such changes are a major cause of death among diabetics.

An illustration of vascular organoids, lab-made human blood vessels, based on original data. Credit: IMBA

“Being able to build human blood vessels as organoids from stem cells is a game changer,” said the study’s senior author Josef Penninger. “Every single organ in our body is linked with the circulatory system. This could potentially allow researchers to unravel the causes and treatments for a variety of vascular diseases, from Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, wound healing problems, stroke, cancer and, of course, diabetes.”

Many diabetic symptoms are the result of changes in blood vessels that result in impaired oxygen supply of tissues, and impaired circulation. Not a lot has been known about vascular changes arising from diabetes. This creation of human blood-vessel organoids is a significant step toward tipping the scales from unknowns to knowns.

Determining how to cultivate three-dimensional human blood-vessel organoids in a lab dish is indeed a huge step toward unveiling blood-vessel change mechanisms.

These “vascular organoids” when transplanted into mice, developed into functional human blood vessels, including capillaries and arteries. So not only was it possible to engineer blood-vessel organoids from human stem cells in a dish, but they also grew a functional human vascular system in another species.

The organoids resemble human capillaries to a great extent, even on a molecular level, and can be used to study blood vessel diseases directly on human tissue. The researchers described how organoids can be used to study the lack of oxygen and nutrient delivery to blood vessels that occurs in diabetic patients, causing complications including kidney failure, heart attacks, strokes, blindness, and the peripheral artery disease that leads to amputations.

They were surprised to find the vascular organoids showed expansion of the basement membrane, which is exactly what causes the oxygen-and-nutrient depletion in humans. The damage to the vascular organoids precisely mirrored what is seen in diabetic patients.

Using the vascular organoids for testing, they found that no currently-prescribed anti-diabetic medications had positive effects on these blood vessel defects. But they did find an enzyme inhibitor that prevented thickening of the basement membrane.

The researchers noted that the findings could allow them to identify underlying causes of vascular disease, and to potentially develop and test new treatments for the world’s estimated 420 million people with diabetes.

That many patients should theoretically translate into significant Research and Development endeavors.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Being Able to Build Human Blood Vessels as Organoids from Stem Cells is a Game Changer appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

“Organoids are useful in retinal stem cell research,” said Dr. Dennis Clegg, a pioneer in the use of stem cells to reverse blindness resulting from age-related macular degeneration, during a live-streamed November 2018  “Ask the Stem Cell Team” webinar hosted by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Clegg explained how IPS (Induced Pluripotent Stem) cells can be donated by patients with a mutation that causes the blind condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, or RP, and then used to generate organoids.

“Ask the Stem Cell Team” webinar was hosted by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in November 2018.

“It is possible to make a retinal organoid,” Clegg said. “An organoid is organ-like so it’s not exactly like retinas, but it is very useful in research. You can take an IPS cell from a patient who has a retinal disease and make retinal organoids. It’s not exactly like the retina but it’s similar. It’s useful in research; you can take an IPS cell from a patient, make that cell into an organoid, and compare it to a normal, non-mutated cell.”

Clegg is founder of the University of California Santa Barbara Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, a Co-Principal Investigator of The California Project to Cure Blindness, and a National Eye Institute lecturer.

Organoids are helpful because they mimic the layered structure of the eye’s retina. Organoids might yield a population of cells “that may be useful for treating disease,” according to Clegg. “If you are going to try to replace the photoreceptor cells that are perishing in a patient’s eye, you could even build a layered structure — an organoid — in the lab and then implant that to rebuild that retina.

“Patients become legally blind when they’ve lost both the rod and cones, the eye’s photoreceptors,” Clegg explained. In a clinical trial, “We started with patients who’d lost photoreceptors. The goal was safety. We wanted to show our process is safe. For patients who were lacking photoreceptors, the surprise was that some patients showed improvement in vision. We’ve shown it’s safe and we think if we catch the disease early enough, we can rescue photoreceptors.”

The use of microfluidic-sustained organoids is in many cases more applicable to humans than the use of experimental animals — and avoids ethical conflict. “For many aspects of research there are no good animal models, and retinal research is one of them,” Clegg noted. “You could even screen for drugs that might improve that retina-in-the-dish, and that would greatly speed up drug testing.”The webinar highlighted what cutting-edge advances are on the horizon, with other “Stem Cell Team” members Dr. Henry Klassen, and clinical trial volunteer Rosie Barrero. University of California Irvine’s Klassen is also a long-time researcher into the use of stem cell treatment to restore vision to people blinded by degenerative eye disease.

Some of Barrero’s vision was restored during a clinical trial. Klassen explained that volunteers like Barrero can describe what they see and what they don’t — which animal subjects cannot do. “We learn a lot more listening to Rosie than what our experimental rats could ever tell us,” he said. “It’s a wonderful surprise to hear these good reports coming from patients. I think we’ve all heard how cancer was cured in a mouse and then does not work in humans.”

Throughout her childhood, Barrero had steadily lost vision in both eyes due to RP — inherited and incurable. “I did not have night vision, I was very near-sighted, very myopic,” Barrero said. “My parents were protective and careful, they took care to not let me get into situations where I would injure myself. I did not know why.” As an adult, after giving birth to twins, she noticed a significant loss, which worsened after her next pregnancy. “After my third child was born I lost central vision.” She felt devastated to know she was going blind. She could not read, and by the time she met Klassen, “I had gotten to the point where I lost hope.” She volunteered for a 2016 trial.

“Rosie’s retinas were pretty beat up and she was blind,” Klassen said. “For her to see something coming back is a bit astonishing, really.”

“I received one million stem cells in the first injection,” Barrero said. “I have seen the most improvement from that first injection. I was blind and now I can see peripherally. The procedure was simple and lasted just a few seconds. I do not have a central vision but I can see out of the side of my eyes. It’s the simple things — I can see color. Before it was blurred, but now I can see colors through my periphery vision.

“When I received the stem cells I really noticed a huge jump in my vision,” Barrero said. “Even if it was just peripheral.” For the first time, “I’ve gone running with my daughter, and I look to my right somewhat. She tells me where there’s a branch or something to avoid. I can’t run on my own, but I can see on one side on my own, which is incredible.”

Live-streaming viewers were able to submit questions, and one person who submitted comment was one of Barrero’s children. She wrote: “Hi Mom. I hope you’ll still want to go shopping with me when you can fully see the price tags and don’t need me anymore!”

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Microfluidics Drives Real-Life Applicability of Organoid Advances appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

New research suggests microfluidic factors might also determine whether the stem cell is stressed or not stressed. Stem cells that are growing and developing under stress from radiation treatment were observed to differ from stem cells developing in less-stressed environments— that is, with no radiation. A recent animal study suggests stem cells might be able to switch between a “normal-growth” version of themselves, to a “growth-under-stress” version, if that is what the body needs.

Dr. John Chute, of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and a professor of hematology/oncology, investigates differences between the microfluidic environments of normal-growth stem cells, compared to those of growth-under-stress stem cells. The Chute team’s goal is to illuminate why normal-growth cells can switch to become growth-under-stress cells, as reported in a recent Cell Stem Cell article. In a press release, Chute observed that “Although the switch occurs, the reason for the change is a mystery.”

Treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy leave human blood-forming cells dangerously stressed and depleted.  A growth-under-stress version of stem cell treatment might be able to heal that depletion much better than a normal-growth version.

The new findings spur questions about whether it might be possible to predict the stress level of stem cells, and to administer the most effective stem cell treatments to radiation patients, in order to speed recovery.

Just as soil nutrients sustain a plant stem, the microfluidic environment surrounding stem cells nurtures them. According to Chute, “In stem cell research, two important questions are, ‘What are the micro-environment cells that regulate stem cells?’ and ‘How do they do it?’” U.S. National Institutes of Health scientists agree: “Microfluidics offers a systematic way to study the decision-making process of stem cells.” In addition, analyses of stem cells based on the microfluidics that nurture them “can be done in a much deeper and wider way” than without them.

NIH scientists have also observed that it is ultimately their microfluidic complexities that predict how stem cells will become one particular body part or another. To gain a precise understanding of how body-part differentiation happens, microfluidic analyses are a necessity.

That necessity is nowhere more evident than in efforts to find out how switching between normal-growth and growth-under-stress stem cells happens. The possible impact on recovery from cancer treatment could be immense. That impact supports industry analyses that the microfluidics market, for which the 2016 global evaluation was $4.76 billion U.S. dollars, will grow to $12.45 billion by 2025.

Numbers tell the story. A surging biotechnology sector paired with the simultaneously increasing global burdens of disease are estimated to drive up market growth. For example, according to the 2017 World Health Organization data, the number of patients suffering from diabetes worldwide was estimated at 422 million in 2014 — and microfluidic advances contribute to innovative diabetes treatments.

The endless frontier of research targets also points to growth on many fronts, from stem-cell stress levels to brain cells, fibrosis and bone joints.

Currently, some new companies that develop stem cells for brain research — deliverable to scientists in both industry and academia — are gaining clients because many facilities do not have the resources to generate neural stem cells themselves. The new companies assemble stem cell types onto microfluidic chips that duplicate human tissue, as well as predict physiological processes. As their novel production challenges are ironed out, these companies will develop and deliver in short time frames.

As reported in a recent Financial Post article, Canada’s Genomics Application Partnership Program (GAPP) supports collaborations specifically to bridge the gap between research and commercialization, and is now funding a $6.5 million microfluidics project to develop fibrosis treatments.

According to U.S. National Institutes of Health scientists, the limitations of a bone joint and cartilage repair are fueling the development of stem cell therapies for weakened cartilage, and this work relies “upon microfluidic technology.”

Predictions about microfluidic commercialization encompass the fact that there were more than 15.5 million cancer survivors in the U.S. in 2016, and this number might be more than 20 million by 2026. About 7 million U.S. patients have had bone treatments such as hip or knee replacements. By 2030, U.S. cartilage-related knee replacement surgeries are projected to total 3.5 million per year.  More than 70,000 people worldwide live with cystic fibrosis.

Analysts need only to do the math.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Microfluidic Environments Nurture Stem Cells on Their Journey Toward Commercialization appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

In Japan, cancer researchers are building microfluidic chip cell sorters for capture and analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC), an endeavor that historically has ranged from challenging to impossible. Their “On‐chip Sort” detected and captured rare CTCs from patients with lung adenocarcinoma, which have typically been undetectable. Mutation detection using isolated CTCs is their next goal.

Austrian scientists at Vienna’s Institute of Molecular Biotechnology are creating lab-grown brain organoids. Brain tumors’ thickly tentacled structure makes them hard to remove surgically. Molecular characteristics make it difficult to map the winding journey that cancers travel. Glioblastoma in particular links up with blood vessels, feeding cancer cells to grow and spread quickly.

IMBA researchers report that their organoids-in-a-dish allow them to replicate carcinogenesis. They can observe onset at early stages, and monitor the tumor growing, in ways previously not possible. Their neoplastic organoids reproduce unique neural aspects, such as an array of cell types and development stages. This provides a way to see how tumors arise. The Vienna researchers can also test different therapies in the dish.

At Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, scientists are investigating micro-optofluidics and micro-magnetofluidics. Micro-optofluidics engineers explore the interaction between fluid flow and light, for new applications. The combination of magnetism and fluid flow reveals the path toward research into micro-magnetofluidics.

In the U.S., researchers at Texas Technology are growing artificial corneas-on-chips to measure how much eye medication reaches its target. This is commonly tested utilizing rabbit eyes. The Texas scientists’ aim to reduce the use of animal testing for eye medication.

“Nobody knows how much eye medicine is really released into the eye because of certain barriers,” one of the researchers explained. “The first barrier is the cornea. The cornea itself is made up of five layers of cells. Companies usually use rabbit eyes because of structural similarity with slow blinking speed.” However, such tests don’t replicate the process inside the of the human cornea. The corneas-on-chips mimic corneal constraints, enabling realistic analyses of permeability.

Researchers in Massachusetts developed a microfluidic assay that detected sepsis infection from just one drop of blood. Sepsis is potentially fatal. Sepsis develops from lesser infections, when infection-fighting processes trigger inflammation that can damage organs, causing them to fail. Prompt diagnoses and early treatment increase the survival rate. The mortality rate for septic shock is nearly 50 percent.

Quick diagnosis is crucial because sepsis symptoms are typical of other disorders. Multiple assessments are sometimes needed, including heart rate and respiration rate; blood tests; X-rays, ultrasound, MRIs or CT scans; liver/kidney function tests and electrolyte imbalances. The assessment might mean obtaining data from multiple unconnected sources. Electronic systems that link data together, and automatically analyze and monitor information, facilitate quick treatment. But they can fail, resulting in false positive or false negative indications.

So an uncomplicated method of diagnosis, with one drop of blood, would be not only striking but life-altering. The researchers’ “assay identified sepsis patients with 97 percent sensitivity and 98 percent specificity,” they reported.

And then there’s deep space. Minus the constraints of gravity, astronauts learn the limits of physiology in space, as well as the limits of the earthly-made equipment. In case they need tools customizable for unanticipated tasks, 3D printing technology is now onboard the International Space Station, or ISS.No need to return all the way back to Earth for that special wrench. In addition to 3D printing of tools, research is underway into the possibility of biofabrication in space. Investigation of cellular function in space shows organoids may have a role in 3D bioprinting, for organ replacement during deep space travel.

So there might be no need to return all the way back to Earth for that wrench — or that medical treatment either.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post Recent Microfluidics Advances, on Earth and Above It appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.

Some estimates of global market value — covering microfluidic components, applications, and key end-use sectors — hover near US$4.5 billion by 2023. Because all life involves fluids, from single-cell cytoplasm to lymph, blood and urine movements, the potential seems endless. Microfluidic models usher in precise control to more microenvironments than conventional models. With regard to areas such as drug discovery, the field is as exciting as fireworks. Yet among the challenges is authentic promotion: some of the systems are not as universally applicable as they sound, and realistic experience in identifying the right applications, according to one observer, “will be critical in fostering more widespread adoption”. The publish-or-perish demand of the academic nest is not necessarily proof of feasibility. Laboratory processes might be hidebound, and great lab throughput doesn’t always smoothly translate to industrial settings. Questions about returns on investments, cost reductions and timely incorporation into existing workflows arise. Along with fireworks, there are also mundane hurdles.

Warnings aside, there’s no denying the promise. Microfluidic systems are debuting into adult society with a splash — of ink. Using bio-ink, 3D printers can produce microfluidic tools capable of moving in all spatial dimensions, to form complex architectures and simplify networks for microfabricated designs. Yet also, confirming that bioprinted systems are reliably safe and effective can become a process that stretches out over time.

A recent study in an American Society of Clinical Oncology publication includes microfluidic tools on a list of next-generation, noninvasive, cancer molecular diagnostics platforms, particularly their cell enrichment usefulness in treating both metastatic and localized prostate cancer. Another recent study, in Urology Today, describes a microfluidic approach for harvesting intact urinary tract tumour cells either individually or in clusters, in a clean environment, which is critical for minimizing cross-contamination or misreads. The microfluidic method appeared capable of better specificity and sensitivity, when compared to other bladder-cancer-detection techniques. Other reports clarify how, due to precision manipulation of fluids at small volumes, microfluidic systems are becoming a pragmatic tool for detection of a wide variety of biomarkers.

As in so many other fields of endeavour, from rocket design to gas stations and bakeries, the microfluidics fledgling will be incorporating robotic systems. In a new University of Washington study, researchers described creating robots to process stem cells into organoids. Robots introduced stem cells into plates that contained hundreds of miniature wells, and then coaxed them to turn into kidney organoids. Each little microwell typically contained ten or more organoids, and each plate contained thousands of organoids. Robots’ speed appeared to produce many organoids in a fraction of the time non-robotic methods take.

Now that microfluidic models do fuel the creation of tissue with striking physiological relevance, could a robotic process do that job, or a portion of that job? The robots would have to be designed, created and maintained by humans, of course, but would a production scale-up point to fewer of those humans?

One Artificial-Intelligence-scented observation by the UW researchers is: “The robots were also programmed to analyze the organoids they produced.”

Getting enough scientists trained up to the needed level of expertise is a legitimate concern of microfluidics investors — but when that is achieved, will there be jobs for all of them?

All manner of challenges, some as yet undefined, loom on the horizon.

Enjoyed this article? Don’t forget to share.

Kathy Jean Schultz

Kathy Jean Schultz is a freelance medical science writer who focuses on medical innovations. She earned a Master’s Degree in Research Methodology from Hofstra University, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Long Island University. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her articles about organoids include "Would you trust a 3-D printed mini organ to test your drugs?" and "Stem cells not only slow disease, they come with their own safety test".

• http://kathyjeanschultz.pressfolios.com/

The post As Microfluidic Systems Come of Age, Both Rough Waters and Smooth Sailing Lie Ahead appeared first on The MicroFluidic Circle.