title: A Microchip for High-throughput Axon Growth Drug Screening.
abstract: It has been recently known that not only the presence of inhibitory molecules associated with myelin but also the reduced growth capability of the axons limit mature central nervous system (CNS) axonal regeneration after injury. Conventional axon growth studies are typically conducted using multi-well cell culture plates that are very challenging to investigate localized effects of drugs and limited to low throughput. Unfortunately, there is currently no otherin vitrotools that allow investigating localized axonal responses to biomolecules in high-throughput for screening potential drugs that might promote axonal growth. We have developed a compartmentalized neuron culture platform enabling localized biomolecular treatments in parallel to axons that are physically and fluidically isolated from their neuronal somata. The 24 axon compartments in the developed platform are designed to perform four sets of six different localized biomolecular treatments simultaneously on a single device. In addition, the novel microfluidic configuration allows culture medium of 24 axon compartments to be replenished altogether by a single aspiration process, making high-throughput drug screening a reality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Hyun Soo
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Sehoon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics and Control Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: Chiwan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koo
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Arum
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA; Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China; Neural and Cognitive Sciences Research Center, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Jaewon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
keywords: Microfluidic neuron culture platform; compartmentalized culture; high-throughput screening; localized biomolecular treatment