Testing of a Novel Piezoelectric Material and Its Implementation in a Non-Invasive Contractile Force Measuring Heart-on-Chip Device

Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering (MSBME)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Balachandran, Kartik

Committee Member

Wolchock, Jeffrey C.

Second Committee Member

Fritsch, Ingrid

Keywords

Cardiomyocyte; Organ-on-Chip; Piezoelectric; Polymer

Abstract

Heart on chip devices are an emerging technology that is used to mimic the physical, cellular, and signaling environment of the heart on a benchtop model. This technology allows researchers to study heart diseases and new drug therapeutic strategies with more physiological relevance to the human heart than animal models and simple cell culture systems. These heart on chip devices are incredibly useful in directly measuring the contractility of beating cardiomyocytes. However, these devices are either lacking the ability to easily and continuously measure the contractility of cardiomyocytes seeded onto their platform or have relied on stiff materials to build sensors on their device, preventing the cardiomyocytes seeded on these devices to move and flex dynamically as they would in the human body. This research has produced a novel piezoelectric material that allows cardiomyocytes to contract on a flexible material while being able to continuously measure the contractility of the cardiomyocytes. This material was studied for its electrical sensitivity, material strength, electrical fatigue, and biocompatibility. It was found that the material was not significantly different when comparing biocompatibility and material strength to other established soft cell culture substrates but was significantly improved when studying electrical sensitivity and electrical fatigue resistance of the material. These results were used to design a heart on chip device which allows cardiomyocyte cells to contract on a flexible cantilever while allowing for continuous, non-invasive contractility measurements. Studies were done to determine ideal manufacturing and processing parameters for the novel piezoelectric material. Further studies will expand on determining the ideal electrode design for collecting the non-invasive contractility measurement and using this heart on chip device, also referred to as the co-cultured cardiomyocytes on chip device (coco chip) to study disease models and new pharmaceutical drugs.

Comments

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