MODELING AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF CHANNEL GEOMETRY FOR DELIVERY OF STIMULANT WAVEFORMS TO LARGE VOLUME CHAMBERS FOR CELLULAR SYNCHRONIZATION

The in vivo environment is dynamic with fluctuations in nutrient, waste, and hormonal levels. An understanding of cellular response can only be achieved by devices that recreate this environment. Microfluidic systems that produce temporal gradients have been used to evaluate dynamic cellular processes. In this report, finite element analysis was used to investigate various microfluidic architectures designed to maintain waveforms in large volume cell chambers. Multiple inputs to the chamber were found to be necessary to reduce attenuation of waveforms and maintain homogeneous concentrations across the chamber. These results were confirmed by synchronizing islets of Langerhans to a glucose wave.