Week 8: The Tasmanian Devil

With Dr. Spector out of town, I spent the final week of immersion in lab. A majority of my time was spent teaching one of the lab’s newer, longer-term members everything that I knew related to my project. This encompassed several protocols, from making PDMS molds, to preparing tumor cell-conditioned media, to seeding the sacrificial microfiber (SMF) constructs.

Aside from this, I also “created” a device that will potentially improve results for all SMF-related projects in the lab. The SMF constructs consist of a patent microchannel (formed using a sacrificial material, hence their name) within a collagen hydrogel, into which the lab seeds various cell types (e.g. aortic smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells) to form a vascular lining. However, one problem that has been mentioned frequently in lab meetings this summer (and I believe prior to this summer) was inconsistent attachment of cells circumferentially throughout the channel. A cell suspension is placed within the channel for an hour before media is placed around the construct. During this one hour, the lab usually orients the construct (within a mold, which is placed in a petri dish) up, down, and tilted for 20 minutes at a time to improve internal surface coverage, but has had varying success. Unfortunately, this also requires close monitoring of time within the incubation hour, limiting the amount of other work that can be done during that time. To make the seeding process more hands-off and consistent, I reappropriated an old peristaltic pump in the lab to clamp and continuously rotate a petri plate (holding up to three constructs) during the one-hour seeding incubation (the lab has named it the Tasmanian Devil after the Looney Tunes character). I think this will generate more consistent cell adhesion along the lumen, but the optimal rotation speed will need to be worked out before it is implemented in all SMF projects.

With all that, immersion term is officially over! I hope that some of the work I did in lab will make a lasting impact, and I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Spector in the many aspects of his work.