3D Bioreactors: lab-on-chip tool for clinical diagnostics and 3D tumor models

HZDR team develops unique microfluidic systems, capable of creating the bioreactors to establish and monitor diverse processes, such as bacterial growth, antimicrobial resistance, create the 3D models for the tumour and even develop the automated prototypes for the clinical diagnostics of the patients (figure).

Capsules and Gel microbeads

• MicroCapsules are the bioreactors with the liquid core and the gelated shell. Their structure can be easily tuned, regarding the core (such as chemicals in microenvironment, viscosity, and cell concentration), and the shell composition (such as thickness, porosity, material). By tuning these physical and chemical conditions, we can design and engineer spheroids/organoids proliferation and growth for specific applications.

• Hydrogel beads, as an alternative to microcapsules, can also be used to culture spheroids and organoids. The  distinctive characteristic properties, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, viscoelasticity, and softness of these micro hydrogels can be tuned on demand, to match the requirements of the tissues, e.g. for tumor model.

Clinical diagnostics

• Although droplet-based microfluidics boosted efficiency of biochemical detection in terms of time and sensitivity, it is still underrepresented in the field of clinical diagnostics. To enable a real-time bedside test of the post-operative patients, we designed a portable droplet-based fluidics device. The clinical validation is realized via the analysis of the α-amylase levels in drainage secretions after abdominal surgery. The α-amylase levels could be determined within 3 min at the precision level of 97%.