A system and method for studying cell injury mechanisms by applying biologically relevant mechanical impact to in vitro cell culture are disclosed. This approach is for maintaining consistent in vitro conditions during experiments, accommodating multiple cell populations, and monitoring each in real-time while achieving amplitude and time scale of input acceleration that mimic blunt injury cases. These multiplexed, environmental control capabilities enable characterizing the relationships between mechanical impact and cell injury in multivariate biological systems.

Described are devices for tethering biological materials, which in applicable embodiments support the growth and differentiation thereof. In a specific embodiment, the biological materials are cells and the cells grow/differentiate into tethered three-dimensional aggregates. The devices disclosed herein may be used in various methods/assays relating to tethered biological materials, such as to tethered three-dimensional aggregates of cells.

The present invention provides cell assay systems and its use in cell based assays.

A method for producing a cell-containing extracellular matrix is provided, the method including preparing an extracellular matrix solution which contains (i) an extracellular matrix precursor and (ii) cells or a cell mass inside a pipette having a tip opening portion; discharging the extracellular matrix solution to form a drop of the extracellular matrix solution at the tip opening portion of the pipette; bringing the tip opening portion of the pipette close to a culture surface of a cell culture container to place the drop on the culture surface while avoiding bringing the tip opening portion of the pipette into contact with the culture surface; moving the tip opening portion of the pipette away from the culture surface to separate the drop from the tip opening portion of the pipette; and gelating the extracellular matrix solution to form a cell-containing extracellular matrix.

The present application provides a pluripotent stem cell-derived neuronal culture system for use in modeling neurodegenerative diseases, drug screening and target discovery; and methods of generating homogenous, terminally differentiated neuronal culture from pluripotent stem cells, and compositions resulting thereof; as well as automated cell culture systems that sustain long-term differentiation, maturation and/or growth of neuronal cells for use in modeling neurodegenerative diseases.

A pumpless microfluidic system is disclosed that can be used to mimic the interaction of organ systems with the immune system. Also disclosed is a method for mimicking an immune system, comprising culturing a plurality of organ cells and at least one population of immune cells in the disclosed pumpless microfluidic system under physiological conditions. The method can further comprise activating an immune reaction in the pumpless microfluidic system, continuing the culture for a defined period, collecting a sample of culture medium from the system, and assaying the sample for one or more indicators of an immune response.

A method of performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) on a sample uses a reader device that mounts on a mobile phone having a camera. A microtiter plate containing wells preloaded with the bacteria-containing sample, growth medium, and drugs of differing concentrations is loaded into the reader device. The wells are illuminated using an array of illumination sources contained in the reader device. Images of the wells are acquired with the camera of the mobile phone. In one embodiment, the images are transmitted to a separate computing device for processing to classify each well as turbid or not turbid and generating MIC values and a susceptibility characterization for each drug in the panel based on the turbidity classification of the array of wells. The MIC values and the susceptibility characterizations for each drug are transmitted or returned to the mobile phone for display thereon.

The microfluidic chip according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a plate, a bridge channel formed in intaglio on one side of the plate, an inlet formed through the plate to communicate with one end of the bridge channel, an outlet formed through the plate to communicate with the other end of the bridge channel, and at least one well extending in an outward direction of the plate from the bridge channel to provide a space, wherein the bridge channel may be in the form of a curved line, a bent line, an arc, a circle, a spiral, or a polygon.

The present invention provides a nerve cell device in which early observation of nerve activity (spikes, bursts, and the like) is made possible and the measured electric strength is increased by cultivating neurons upon a cell scaffold. By using this nerve cell device, imaging of intracellular signaling is also possible.

An example apparatus includes a well plate having an array of wells, a light encoding layer positioned under the well plate, an imaging layer to capture an image of the well plate encoded by the light encoding layer, an array of electrodes positioned on a surface of a bottom floor of the at least one well, and a controller. The light encoding layer is to encode light passing through a microscopic object in at least one well of the array of wells. The light encoding layer has a substantially flat form. The controller is to direct electrical voltage to the electrodes to generate a non-rotating, non-uniform electrical field, the electrical field being to rotate an object in the electrical field.