“Development and research of a microfluidic device (“Lung on a chip”) using microfluidic, acoustic and radioelectronic technologies for modeling at the cellular level the physiological microenvironment of the respiratory tract and in vitro drug testing”.

Head: Professor Iren Kuznetsova

Abstract.

The interdisciplinary Project is dedicated to the development and research of a microfluidic device (“Lung on a chip”) using microfluidic, acoustic and radioelectronic technologies for modeling at the cellular level the physiological microenvironment of the respiratory tract and testing drugs in vitro. It should be noted that the development and research of a human respiratory lung model on a chip based on a biomimetic strategy that takes into account the integrated biological, mechanical structures and biochemical functions of a living lung is an urgent modern innovative area of important fundamental and applied importance, both for obtaining new knowledge about physiology at the cellular level, as well as for medical and pharmaceutical practices. Within the framework of the Project, it is planned to simulate the physiological microenvironment of the respiratory tract “Lung on a chip” based on the “Laboratory on a chip” concept and study in real time key functional parameters and their changes due to external influences using impedance measurement and spectroscopic methods. The model microfluidic system being developed in the Project reproduces many physiological functions observed in a breathing lung and provides direct visualization and quantitative analysis of various biological processes in a “Lung on a chip” at the cellular level, as well as research in ways that are impossible in traditional cell cultures or in animals. The fundamental objective of the Project is to study the mechanisms of the effect of acoustic fields and low-intensity microwave radiation on the barrier properties of epithelial and endothelial cell layers in microfluidic devices of the “Lung on a chip” type for biomedical applications. An important applied task of the Project is to study the effect of various drugs on the barrier properties of epithelial cells immobilized in the microfluidic device under development (Lung-op-Chip). For the first time, the Project is supposed to use acousto-electronic and radioelectronic technologies to directly affect the epithelial barrier-forming cell layers. During the exposure, the densities and permeability of these layers will be studied using impedance measurement methods, TEER (transendothelial/transepithelial electrical resistance), as well as TEPD (transepithelial potential difference) methods. For the first time, the Project proposes to use a microfluidic device of the “Lung on a chip” type to study biophysical and biochemical mechanisms in modeling the imitation and suppression of inflammatory processes using pro- and anti-inflammatory drugs. Thus, the main innovative task of the interdisciplinary Project within the framework of the “Organ-on-a-chip” concept is to create a microfluidic device with an imitation of the microenvironment of the respiratory tract and to study the properties of the alveolar/respiratory epithelium and endothelium as part of an elastic porous cell membrane reproducing the parameters of the hematoalveolar barrier. Microfluidic, acoustoelectronic and radioelectronic technologies developed in the Project can become the basis for modeling tissue-cell interfaces of other organs, such as intestines, kidneys, skin and bone marrow, as well as for modeling various pathogens.