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Design and Prototyping of a novel "Organs-on-a-Chip" Bioreactor System for Substance Testing
This work was conducted by
Fraunhofer IWS Dresden, TU Berlin, ProBioGen AG Berlin, GeSiM mbH
Introduction
The prototype of this "organs-on-a-chip" (OOC) platform is supposed to enable studies of the interaction of consumer-relevant synthetic or natural substances with the human body in its typical environments and with its individual genotypic specificities. It has been designed for the long-term culture of human sub-organoids in small cavities of a microfludic flow-through cell.
Design of the Multi-Bioreactor Chip
A double sided micromachined silicon chip at the size of a standard glass slide is the heart of the bioreactor. It contains the growth segments and the cavities for the stem cells. The silicon chip is than enhanced with a PDMS layer shaping fluidic structures for supply and removal of reagents.
Features:
| Each micro-bioreactor consists of
|
 |  | |
| Layout of the bioreactor chip |
| Layer | Material | Technology | Functions |  | |
| 1 | PDMS (2000 µm) | Casting | Channels and reservoirs | ||
| 2 | Glass (200 µm) | Lithography, laser | Closing layer | ||
| 3 | Silicon (400 µm) | Lithography, laser | Channels, organ growth segments & stem cell niche | ||
| 4 | Glass (200 µm) | Sensors and heaters | Sensors and heaters |
The micromachining department at GeSiM contributed to the development by:
- Lithography and mask design
- Development of a new deep RIE etching process for micro patterning of silicon wafers
- Adaptation of the PDMS casting technology for the fluidic reservoirs (Layer 1)
- Development of a three layer glass/silicon/glass sandwich with embedded heater/sensor arrays (Accuracy of temperature control 0.1 K)
Instrumentation
GeSiM developed a docking station for unattended operation of the bioreactor chip. Laboratory compatibility was ensured by sticking to the common micro titer plate format (Approx. 125 mm x 83 mm). Therefore the bioreactor docking station fits to common laboratory robots, shakers, incubators, microscope stages and others.
Features:
- Data exchange with PC
- Battery based operation for at least 2 hours
- Automatic charging in the docking station
- Data acquisition and logging for at least 14 days (E.g. temperature)
- Monitoring and alerting function for limit values
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Design and prototyping of a novel "Organs-on-a-chip"-bioreactor system for substance testing