This invention provides methods and apparatuses for the rapid assessment of cell permeability by a drug. More particularly, described herein a method of determining membrane permeability (influx and/or efflux) of a cell to a drug, the method including: (a) obtaining a biological sample; (b) dispersing at least one cell from the biological sample to a discrete location; (c) exposing the at least one cell to one member of a drug panel in a drug solution, wherein the drug panel is composed of drugs of a given concentration; (d) incubating the at least one cell from the biological sample in the drug for a given time; (e) obtaining at least one electro-analytical measurement of the discrete location adjacent the at least one cell.

Provided herein is technology relating to engineered tissues and particularly, but not exclusively, to methods, compositions, and systems for engineering a biosynthetic vascular network.

A lung breathing chip and cell stretching culture platform and an operating method thereof are disclosed. The lung breathing chip and cell stretching culture platform controls the output of the motor by programming, stretches the micro-fluidic chip by the cam component, changes the size of the cam component and the frequency of the motor rotation to change the stretching frequency and the amount of stretching to simulate the breathing of the lungs in different states, uses liquid electrophoresis technology to arrange the cells in the biocompatible hydrogel and the hydrogel three-dimensionally to imitate the three-dimensional cell tissue, and injects drugs through the dynamic perfusion system to realize the drug testing platform that the cells of the chip bionic lung tissue are stretched.

The present invention relates to a biomimetic nerve chip for evaluating the efficacy and toxicity of a drug, a method for evaluating the efficacy of a drug on nerve cells through astrocytes by using the biomimetic nerve chip, and a method for evaluating the toxicity of a drug on nerve cells through astrocytes by using the biomimetic nerve chip, the biomimetic nerve chip comprising: an astrocyte supply unit and a nerve cell supply unit for simulating nerve tissue; and a culture solution supply unit for supplying a culture solution to the astrocyte supply unit and the nerve cell supply unit. By using the biomimetic nerve chip for evaluating the efficacy and toxicity of a drug provided in the present invention, it is possible to overcome inaccuracies due to differences between the different species in animal experiments in the study of nerve tissues, and using a combination of astrocytes and nerve cells enables use of the nerve chip as a platform to more accurately evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of a drug under conditions similar to in vivo conditions, and the nerve chip can be applied to studies of microenvironments in nerve tissues and other organ-on-a-chip studies. Therefore, the present invention may be utilized in the development of a human-on-a-chip that can effectively analyze the efficacy and toxicity of a drug.

A system, apparatus, and method include a pump to deliver vapor including airborne contaminants including organic compounds including a target analyte; a collector to transfer the airborne contaminants by autonomous liquid extraction into a mobile organic liquid phase; a micro-fluidic chamber including immobilized biorecognition elements that bind to analytes delivered from the mobile organic liquid phase; a mechanism to introduce the mobile organic liquid phase to a buffer containing a plurality of substrates causing a series of biochemical reactions that create a change corresponding to a concentration of the target analyte; and a detector to perform real-time analysis that correlates to a concentration of the organic compounds to determine a presence of the target analyte.

The disclosure relates to bioreactors, for example for biological treatment and, more specifically to bioreactor insert apparatus including biofilms and related methods. The bioreactor insert apparatus provides a means for circulation of reaction medium within the bioreactor, a biofilm support, and biological treatment of an inlet feed to the reactor/insert apparatus. The bioreactor insert apparatus has a high relative surface area for biofilm attachment and is capable of generating complex flow patterns and increasing treatment efficiency/biological conversion activity in a biologically-active reactor. The high surface area structure incorporates multiple biofilm support structures such as meshes at inlet and outlet portions of the structure. The biofilm support structures and biofilms thereon can increase overall reaction rate of the bioreactor and/or perform some solid/liquid separation in the treatment of the wastewater or other influent.

Transfer of genetic and other materials to cells is conducted in a hands-free, automated and continuous process that includes flowing the cells between electroporation electrodes to facilitate delivery of a payload into the cells, while acoustophoretically focusing the cells. Also described is a control method for the acoustophoretic focusing of cells that includes detecting locations of cells flowing through a channel, such as with an image analytics system, and modulating a drive signal to an acoustic transducer to change the locations of the cells flowing in the channel. Finally, an electroporation driver module is described that uses a digital to analog converter for generating an electroporation waveform and an amplifier for amplifying the electroporation waveform for application to electroporation electrodes.

The present invention relates to a novel bioreactor system for cell cultivation. More specifically, the invention relates to a compact bioreactor system which has several integrated functions and enables small scale static culture as well as scale-up rocking culture in the same bioreactor. The bioreactor system comprises tray for positioning of a cell culture bag having adjustable volume, a lid covering the cell culture bag and provided with heating function, an integrated perfusion unit, an integrated cell loading unit, and an integrated unit for automatic cell culture sampling, wherein the bioreactor system is controlled by a single control unit. The invention also relates to a method of cell culture using the bioreactor system for culture of therapeutic cells.

A device for single-cell analysis according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a substrate; a gap between the substrate and porous membrane which is a space for culture medium; and a porous membrane formed on having a pore capable of isolating a second cell into single cell units.

A method for single-cell analysis according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: Culturing a first cell in a culture medium on a bottom side of porous membrane; Applying a sample including a second cell on a porous membrane in a culture medium; Isolating the second cell into single cell units in a pore existing in the porous membrane with a external force such as agitation and gravitational force; Generating an interaction situation between the first cells and the single cell-level second cell; Analyzing a cellular phenomena of the first cell or the second cell.

A tissue sample processing system and associated methods is disclosed and described. The tissue sample processing system (100) can include a microfluidic separating system (110). The microfluidic separating system (110) can include a fluid channel to receive a carrier fluid (104) and a tissue sample (102), and a plurality of outlets. Flow of the carrier fluid (104) and the tissue sample (102) in the fluid channel can facilitate segregation of materials in the tissue sample (102) based on size into a plurality of size fractions, such that each one of the plurality of outlets receives a different size fraction of the materials in the tissue sample. In addition, the sample processing system (100) can comprise a cryopreservation system (120) associated with at least one of the plurality of outlets to freeze the material in the tissue sample (102) associated with the at least one of the plurality of outlets.