Exploring the Oxygen Permeability in Microfluidic Culture Platforms

The majority of microfluidic devices in standard academic laboratories are fabricated out of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)[1]. PDMS is gas permeable which allows mammalian cell culture within microchannels. Recently, several studies have focused on PDMS hydrating over the course of standard experiments[2, 3], however the gas permeability of these hydrated PDMS networks has yet to be explored.

The proposed project will focus on studies of gas permeability in PDMS microfluidic networks under various hydration states. Fluorescent oxygen sensors will be integrated into the fluidic networks to allow real time quantification of the oxygen concentrations within the microchannels.

1. Squires, T.M. and S.R. Quake, Microfluidics: Fluid physics at the nanoliter scale. Reviews of Modern Physics, 2005. 77(3): p. 977-1026.

2. Heo, Y.S., L.M. Cabrera, J.W. Song, N. Futai, Y.C. Tung, G.D. Smith, and S. Takayama, Characterization and resolution of evaporation-mediated osmolality shifts that constrain microfluidic cell culture in poly(dimethylsiloxane) devices. Analytical Chemistry, 2007. 79(3): p. 1126-1134.

3. Randall, G.C. and P.S. Doyle, Permeation-driven flow in poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic devices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2005. 102(31): p. 10813-10818.