Background

Despite the growing demand and interest in biofabrication in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, there are currently no efficient methods for monitoring construct function and behavior over time. In collaboration with CSEM (Landquart) we aim to create an innovative method based on insertable micro-biosensors that can screen in real time and non-invasively cellular behavior during the (bio)fabrication and in vitro maturation process. We will develop a device with miniaturized sensors that can measure parameters and send the information to a remote controller. The monitoring will aim at quality control (viability, differentiation), to increase the success rate for therapeutic transplantation. Nowadays the most common analysis techniques include the sampling of medium and measurement of analytes by spectrophotometric assays, HPLC or gene expression analysis. These methods do not allow us to follow the cellular quality in real time and remotely. We aim to create an innovative and non-invasive way to study the behavior of cells with ad hoc insertable specific miniaturized micro-biosensors that allow in situ and real-time quality control of tissue engineering constructs. The monitoring will be done on a cellular level on multiple samples (inside tissue culture plates) over culture time by an easy, cost-effective, analytic, and reproducible method using specific markers based on the desired type of observation.