Scientists have formed a “placenta-on-a-chip” comprising of a slim, rectangular, clear polymer block with two tiny microchannels a millionth of a meter wide and high, divided by a porous membrane. The goal of the development is to assess and examine how medications and nutrients navigate the placental wall from mother to fetus and vice versa.
The researchers have just secured a grant to further modify their model. We’re still working on our ‘placenta-on-a-chip’ development, said Nicole Hashemi, associate professor of mechanical engineering and project leader. With this grant we’re irritating to design detection platforms that can be combined to the model.
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The team is presently working on two replicas, one which would utilize ions to sense how cells answer to mechanical or chemical spurs and one which would employ “hyperspectral” imaging apparatus to sense how cells answer to chemical stimuli.
Hyperspectral sensors have strong spectral resolution, permitting them to seizure detailed data about the spectral characteristics of an imaged scene. This permits the recognition of subtle changes in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Hashemi also anticipate that the model will one day be able to exploit a patient’s cells to improve personalized treatment. According to a study summary, such models might lead to higher precision in testing for the transport rate of precise compounds and setting safe exposure levels.
Hashemi’s study team has already established various uses for the expertise including one study that saw caffeine transport over the placental wall inspected and an ongoing partnership with the University of Nebraska College of Medicine to investigate nanomedicines as they pass through the placental barrier.
There are a lot of thoughts about how to use this new technology, Hashemi said.
The scientist added that she hopes to have a new prototype of the chip by the end of the third year of the grant and will be dedicating a substantial amount of time to rudimentary science in order to advance her two new sensing systems. The ultimate goal is to familiarize a technology that can assist to resolve critical human health concerns for both mothers and their offspring.
One thing is for certain, the team has come a long way from where they started their work in 2015 as mere beginners in the field.
It was an entirely groundbreaking project for our lab, Hashemi said. We do not know much about the purpose of the placenta when we started. We pushed this knowledge significantly when there weren’t a lot of resources. This honor wouldn’t have been conceivable without the devotion and hard work of my graduate students.”
Hashemi now leads NISTRON, an early-stage firm that assemblies carbon microstructures for biotechnology applications, and she says her graduate students will explore commercialization by joining in entrepreneurial programs on campus.
