Name: biomems and cellular biology: perspectives and applications
Uploaded: 2007-10-01T00:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about BioMEMS and Cellular Biology: Perspectives and Applications at JoVE.com

biomems and cellular biology: perspectives and applications

The ability to culture cells has revolutionized hypothesis testing in basic cell and molecular biology research. It has become a standard methodology in drug screening, toxicology, and clinical assays, and is increasingly used in regenerative medicine. However, the traditional cell culture methodology   essentially consisting of the immersion of a large population of cells in a homogeneous fluid medium and on a homogeneous flat substrate   has become increasingly limiting both from a fundamental and practical perspective. Microfabrication technologies have enabled researchers to design, with micrometer control, the biochemical composition and topology of the substrate, and the medium composition, as well as the neighboring cell type in the surrounding cellular microenvironment. Additionally, microtechnology is conceptually well-suited for the development of fast, low-cost in vitro systems that allow for high-throughput culturing and analysis of cells under large numbers of conditions. In this interview, Albert Folch explains these limitations, how they can be overcome with soft lithography and microfluidics, and describes some relevant examples of research in his lab and future directions.

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about BioMEMS and Cellular Biology: Perspectives and Applications at JoVE.com

BioMEMS and Cellular Biology: Perspectives and Applications

The ability to culture cells has revolutionized hypothesis testing in basic cell and molecular biology research. It has become a standard methodology in ...

Research

JoVE Journal

Biology

Perspectives on Neuroscience

Micro-scale Engineering for Cell Biology

BioMEMS: Forging New Collaborations Between Biologists and Engineers

This video describes the fabrication and use of a microfluidic device to culture central nervous system (CNS) neurons.  This device is compatible with ...

Making Patch-pipettes and Sharp Electrodes with a Programmable Puller

Glass microelectrodes (also called pipettes) have been a workhorse of electrophysiology for decades.  Today, such pipettes are made from glass capillaries ...

Collection and Cryopreservation of Hamster Oocytes and Mouse Embryos

Embryos and oocytes were first successfully cryopreserved more than 30 years ago, when Whittingham et al. 1 and Wilmut 2 separately described that mouse ...

Absolute Quantum Yield Measurement of Powder Samples

Measurement of fluorescence quantum yield has become an important tool in the search for new solutions in the development, evaluation, quality control and ...

Measurement of Cellular Chemotaxis with ECIS/Taxis

Cellular movement in response to external stimuli is fundamental to many cellular processes including wound healing, inflammation and the response to ...

Mechanical Stimulation-induced Calcium Wave Propagation in Cell Monolayers: The Example of Bovine Corneal Endothelial Cells

Intercellular communication is essential for the coordination of physiological processes between cells in a variety of organs and tissues, including the ...

Infinium Assay for Large-scale SNP Genotyping Applications

Genotyping variants in the human genome has proven to be an efficient method to identify genetic associations with phenotypes. The distribution of ...

Techniques to Induce and Quantify Cellular Senescence

In response to cellular stress or damage, proliferating cells can induce a specific program that initiates a state of long-term cell-cycle arrest, termed ...