Lisa Muiznieks PhD & protein-based membranes | My Microfluidics Career

I spent many years studying elastic proteins, including elastin that is found in blood vessels, lung and skin and is responsible for the reversible stretch and recoil ability of tissues. My past work with a team at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, involved using these natural elastic proteins to make thin stretchable materials. Elvesys provided the ideal inter-disciplinary environment to combine elastic materials and microfluidics. The MSCA fellowship opportunity at Elvesys enables me to assemble microfluidic devices with elastic protein-based membranes (made using the same proteins that cells secrete into a network around themselves in the body!) and culture cells inside, with the aim of improving cell models by adding mechanical stimulation.

Conventional cell culture is carried out under largely static conditions. By this we mean that mechanical forces, including stretch, compression and shear stress from fluid flow, that are found in the body and act continuously on cells and tissues, are absent. Microfluidic cell culture chambers shrink the surface that the cells grow on to the order of a millimetre wide and reduce the volume of growth medium (liquid nutrients) required to keep the cells alive. Microfluidic fluid handling allows the perfusion of medium over the cells at a controlled flow rate, allowing study of precise shear stress on cells. It also can be used to apply tension (stretch) to thin membrane surfaces that cells can be grown on, providing a more life-like environment for cells in the laboratory. More physiologically relevant models, in this case, by including mechanical forces, will hopefully result in more realistic studies of disease progression and medicines (drug studies).

Mechanical forces provide important stimuli to cells and tissues in the body, directing fundamental processes from the cell level to the whole tissue level. Mechano-sensitive responses include cell growth, movement and cell fate (what cell type they mature into). Already, dynamic culture conditions have shed new light on the spread of cancer (cancer cell migration from a primary tumour site to a secondary location), enhanced models of blood vessel formation, and have been used to investigate the effect of blood flow patterns on clogging in the major arteries (cardiovascular diseases). The stretchable, perfusable lung model offers a more realistic platform to study the effect of drugs on lung cells, the immune response to infections like pneumonia, and the toxicity of tiny particles of pollution in the air.

I am passionate about making dynamic forces and perfusion in cell culture more accessible to non-specialists in microfluidics! I would love to continue to work to bring microfluidic techniques to more researchers in cell and mechanobiology, so that the experts in these fields can advance the state of the art in their research. Together, we are stronger than if we work alone!