SONATA
“Study on the effect of surface modification of poly(dimethylsiloxane) on its physicochemical properties and interaction with biological material.”

Poly(dimethylosiloxane) – PDMS is a very popular material used for fabrication of Lab-on-a-chip systems for biological applications. Such microfluidic systems represent many advantages in terms of test speed, performance, integration, sample/solvent quantity or costs. Although PDMS has numerous advantages like its biocompatibility and permeability to gases, it is strong hydrophobic material, which adsorbs proteins or small hydrophobic molecules. Therefore, a simple method of PDMS surface modification (which will enable to obtain a stable and hydrophilic surface) will be developed during this project. The main objective of the project is a basic research focused on the examination of the effect of poly(dimethylsiloxane) surface modification on physicochemical surface properties and interaction with biological material (cells). The new modified PDMS layer will be subjected to in vitro studies to determine the adhesion and growth of cells (both cancerous and normal). Besides, the attachment/detachment of living cells on the modified PDMS microchannel surfaces will be investigated using fabricated microsystems as a new approach for studying various cellular functions. For this purpose, the shear stress value will be determined depending on flow rates and geometry of microstructure.

 

Fig. The scheme of the fabricated microsystem for cell attachment/detachment analysis based on shear stress measurements.

Team members:

• Principal Investigator: D.Sc. Ph.D. Eng.  Elżbieta Jastrzębska
• Co-investigator: Ph.D. Sylwia Flis (National Medicines Institute)
• PhD students: M.Sc. Eng. Agnieszka Żuchowska, M.Sc. Eng. Magdalena Bułka, M.Sc. Eng. Patrycja Sokołowska
• Students: Piotr Kwiatkowski

Publications:

1. Jastrzębska E., Żuchowska A., Flis S., Sokolowska P., Bułka M., Dybko A., Brzózka Z.: Biological characterization of the modified poly(dimethylsiloxane) surfaces based on cell attachment and toxicity assays, Biomicrofluidics, 2018, vol. 12, no. 044105, pp.1-14. DOI:10.1063/1.5035176
2. Skorupska S., Jastrzębska E., Chudy M., Dybko A., Brzózka Z.: Microfluidic Systems, In: Cardiac Cell Culture Technologies Microfluidic and On-Chip Systems / Jastrzębska Elżbieta, Brzózka Zbigniew (eds.), 2018, Basel, Springer, pp.3-21, ISBN 978-3-319-70684-9. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-70685-6_2
3. Żuchowska A., Jastrzębska E., Żukowski K., Chudy M., Dybko A., Brzózka Z.: A549 and MRC-5 cell aggregation in a microfluidic Lab-on-a-chip system, Biomicrofluidics, 2017, vol. 11, no. 2, pp.024110_1-02410_13. DOI:10.1063/1.4979104
4. Żuchowska A., Kwiatkowski P., Jastrzębska E., Chudy M., Dybko A., Brzózka Z.: Adhesion of MRC-5 and A549 cells on poly(dimethylosiloxane) surface modified by proteins, Electrophoresis, 2016, vol. 37, no. 3, pp.536-544. DOI:10.1002/elps.201500250
5. Żuchowska A., Jastrzębska E., Chudy M., Dybko A., Brzózka Z.: Advanced 3D Spheroid Culture for Evaluation of Photodynamic Therapy in Microfluidic System, Procedia Engineering, 2016, vol. 168, pp.403-406. DOI:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.18