Cellular BioChip Impedance Analyzer
Format
SOECS Senior Project Demonstration
Abstract/Artist Statement
Bioassays are a type of in vitro experiment used to measure the effects of a substance on a living organism. In regards to drug toxicity testing, the current method of analysis involves fluorescent microscopy and can be a time consuming process. CytoDiscovery Inc. is developing a microfluidic chip-based system capable of performing biological assays to provide important and useful information about the functionality and health of cells growing in confined “channels” on a chip. The goal of this project is to develop hardware and software for an automated bioimpedance assay system. The hypothesis to be tested is that the electrical impedance of a microfluidic channel will increase quantitatively due to the displacement of cell culture medium by cells growing in the channel.We are using LabVIEW to automate the measurement process. In addition to LabVIEW, a relay board is used to switch between the channels on the chip. The LabVIEW program will be able to save and export the collected data to a LabVIEW measurement file which is compatible with Microsoft Excel.We will conduct a growth kinetics test to plot the relationship between impedance and cell growth. For our project, we are using an A-375 Melanoma cell line. The data from this study will also be used to validate our software as well as the entire set-up of the system.
Location
School of Engineering and Computer Sciences
Start Date
6-5-2006 2:00 PM
End Date
6-5-2006 3:30 PM
Cellular BioChip Impedance Analyzer
School of Engineering and Computer Sciences
Bioassays are a type of in vitro experiment used to measure the effects of a substance on a living organism. In regards to drug toxicity testing, the current method of analysis involves fluorescent microscopy and can be a time consuming process. CytoDiscovery Inc. is developing a microfluidic chip-based system capable of performing biological assays to provide important and useful information about the functionality and health of cells growing in confined “channels” on a chip. The goal of this project is to develop hardware and software for an automated bioimpedance assay system. The hypothesis to be tested is that the electrical impedance of a microfluidic channel will increase quantitatively due to the displacement of cell culture medium by cells growing in the channel.We are using LabVIEW to automate the measurement process. In addition to LabVIEW, a relay board is used to switch between the channels on the chip. The LabVIEW program will be able to save and export the collected data to a LabVIEW measurement file which is compatible with Microsoft Excel.We will conduct a growth kinetics test to plot the relationship between impedance and cell growth. For our project, we are using an A-375 Melanoma cell line. The data from this study will also be used to validate our software as well as the entire set-up of the system.