Organ-on-a-Chip Platform
Professional Project
Project Overview
At Fikst I worked with a biotech startup to develop an organ-on-a-chip platform which provided a physiologically accurate environment for harvested human cells to grow. The platform consisted of a thermoplastic microfluidic chip which enabled cell seeding, cell growth, drug dosing and media sampling. Also included was an electronic support module which regulated the flow of liquid in the chip via a peristaltic pump.
My Contributions
Our team at Fikst was relied on solely for the mechanical design, testing and production of the microfluidic chip and electronic support module. I was responsible for designing and implementing improvements to the chip from the beginning of the project. I utilized Solidworks and HSMworks to create a design for a CNC machined chip. I personally fabricated and assembled the first batch of chips before working with our internal technician and later external vendors to produce larger batches. Over 500 machined chips were produced and used successfully by our client before I was tasked with making the design compatible with injection molding and the product was commercially released.
Above are three videos showing the prototyping stages I went through when redesigning the attachment method for peristaltic pump case (purple part). The first video shows the case being attached by lifting the tubing and rollers to push the parts together. This is not ideal as the user must touch the tubing which has grease on it making the attachment harder and requiring the user to swap gloves after installation. The second video shows a prototype I made which uses a spring-loaded mechanism to lock the pump case in place once it is pressed down. The third video shows an improved prototype which is more rigid allowing for a lower spring force and thus a lower force from the user to attach.
