Lisa Muiznieks & protein-based membranes
My microfluidic career – Protein-based membranes
What can you achieve with microfluidics? What are the practical applications of microfluidics to a field of research, and how could microfluidics help your research career?
We asked our team for you. My Microfluidic Careers pages give you a realistic, no-frills idea of various projects that can benefit from microfluidics.
Lisa Muiznieks PhD is working on protein-based membranes for the Mech-Loc project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 MSCA-IF under grant agreement No 793749.
What is the most interesting thing about your project?
There are many interesting things about my project, from the science (often with unpredictable results!) to the engineering challenges to the design and creativity involved. But one of the most interesting things for me is the power that comes from working as part of a team of researchers with different backgrounds, different training, and different perspectives, all working on a common project for a common goal. This brings left-field ideas almost daily, out-of-the-box solutions, constant learning opportunities, and a unified dynamic that is thrilling and addictive.
“This team brings a unified dynamic that is thrilling and addictive.”
How did you transition from your previous research field to microfluidics?
I spent many years studying elastic proteins, including elastin, which is found in blood vessels, lungs, and skin and is responsible for tissues’ reversible stretch and recoil ability. My past work with a team at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, involved using these natural elastic proteins to make thin, stretchable materials. Elvesys provided the ideal interdisciplinary environment to combine elastic materials and microfluidics.
The MSCA fellowship opportunity at Elvesys enables me to assemble microfluidic devices with elastic protein-based membranes (made using the same proteins that cells secrete into a network around themselves in the body!) and culture cells inside, with the aim of improving cell models by adding mechanical stimulation.
Which task seems impossible without microfluidics?
Conventional cell culture is carried out under largely static conditions. By this, we mean that mechanical forces, including stretch, compression, and shear stress from fluid flow, are absent in the body and act continuously on cells and tissues. Microfluidic cell culture chambers shrink the surface that the cells grow on to the order of a millimeter wide and reduce the volume of growth medium (liquid nutrients) required to keep the cells alive.
Microfluidic fluid handling allows medium perfusion over the cells at a controlled flow rate, allowing the study of precise shear stress on cells. It also can apply tension (stretch) to thin membrane surfaces that cells can be grown on, providing a more life-like environment for cells in the laboratory. More physiologically relevant models, in this case, by including mechanical forces, will hopefully result in more realistic studies of disease progression and medicines (drug studies).
How does this project push back the current state of the art?
Mechanical forces provide important stimuli to cells and tissues in the body, directing fundamental processes from the cell to the whole tissue level. Mechano-sensitive responses include cell growth, movement, and fate (the cell type they mature into). Already, dynamic culture conditions have shed new light on the spread of cancer (cancer cell migration from a primary tumor site to a secondary location), enhanced models of blood vessel formation, and have been used to investigate the effect of blood flow patterns on clogging in the major arteries (cardiovascular diseases).
The stretchable, perfusable lung model offers a more realistic platform to study the effect of drugs on lung cells, the immune response to infections like pneumonia, and the toxicity of tiny particles of pollution in the air.
“More physiologically relevant models will hopefully result in more realistic studies of disease progression and medicines.”
Do you already know what challenges in research you want to tackle next?
I am passionate about making dynamic forces and perfusion in cell culture more accessible to non-specialists in microfluidics! I would love to continue to work to bring microfluidic techniques to more researchers in cell and mechanobiology so that the experts in these fields can advance state-of-the-art research. Together, we are stronger than if we work alone!
Curious about the Mech-Loc project and Lisa’s work on protein-based membranes? She went into its details in her webinar on dynamic cell culture.