Design and Fabrication of Lab-on-a-Chip Device for Studying DNA-based Drug Delivery to Cancer Cells

The objective of this project is to design and fabricate lab-on-a-chip devices for culturing cancer cells, and for investigation of the efficacy of DNA-based drug delivery. In-vitro tests are common way to provide biologists with data and information about cell response to stimuli or in this case the uptake of drugs such as doxorubicin (Adriamycin) and their action within cells. However, they do not address dynamic complexity of the tumor environment, which can greatly affect tissue availability and overall treatment efficiency. This project will develop a lab-on-a-chip device for the 3D co-culture of a cancer cell line using microfluidic technology that simulates a tumor environment of multicellularity and spatiotemporal complexity in which cancer and stromal cells can still be studied with in-vivo like characteristics and expression. This project requires several steps across multiple disciplines in order to accomplish the research tasks. First, microfluidic devices will be designed and fabricated to produce desired concentration of drug, which will be fed into cell culture chambers. Second, in collaboration with a research group (Dr. Y.W. Huang) in the biological sciences department, these microfluidic devices will be used to study diffusion of DNA-based drug delivery for cancer treatment