Study of liver sinusoids’ fenestrations with microfluidics: DeLIVER
This project is completed now. If interested, feel free to contact us.
Microfluidics device to study the fenestrations of liver sinusoids: introduction
If hepatocytes have been intensely studied, the role of non-parenchymal cells and their interaction with hepatocytes are still not well documented.
Specifically, the endothelial cells of liver sinusoids are responsible for blood clearance, and the endothelial transport is ensured by nanosized pores called fenestrations.
Their small size (50-200 nm) and dynamic structures hinder their characterization in living cells using currently available microscopy techniques.
Organ-on-a-chip to study fenestrations in endothelial cells of liver sinudoids: project description
Thus, It is desirable to design functionally engineered in vitro models to profoundly investigate the function and dynamics of the fenestrations of liver sinusoids to understand liver pathophysiology fully.
This project will address this issue by developing a novel high-speed super-resolution microscope capable of imaging the evolution of fenestrations over time and space.
This innovative microscopy technique uses periodic interference light patterns to pass the diffraction limit of light, thus imaging nanometric structures.
Based on its expertise in organ-on-chip devices and flow control systems, we will develop a new chip design for 3D microfluidic cultivation and cell manipulation, meeting the requirements of this new microscope.
This organ-on-a-chip will provide a powerful tool to study the fenestrations’ response to several stimuli (drugs, molecules, metabolites, rapidly changing flow conditions…) and highlight the differences between healthy and unhealthy liver sinusoidal endothelial cells.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 766181 (DeLIVER project).
Researcher
Alessandra Dellaquila
PhD Candidate
- Research associate (Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, Italy)
- Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
Areas of expertise:
Biomedical engineering, biomechanics, data analysis, microfluidics.
Do you need more information? You can have a look at Alessandra’s review about optical detection in microfluidics.
