Chenchen Zhou^1,2, Shuaishuai Liang³, Bin Qi³, Chenxu Liu², Nam-Joon Cho^1,*

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.30, No.3, pp. 1-2, 2024, DOI:10.32604/icces.2024.012380

Abstract Micro tools/parts are attracting increasing attention due to the miniaturization evolutionary tendency in many fields, whose functionalities are critically determined by their materials and shapes [1- 5]. Sharp-edged ceramic microparticles have great prospects to be used as micromachining tools and micro components. However, it remains a huge challenge to fabricate nontransparent ceramic sharp-edged microparticles in a high-throughput way while taking their shape complexity, precision, and strength into account [6-8]. Herein, we present an online mixing and in-situ polymerization strategy: “one-pot microfluidic fabrication” along with two novel microfluidic device fabrication methods: “groove & tongue” and sliding More >

JONG HWAN SUNG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.48, No.8, pp. 1145-1153, 2024, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2024.050365 - 02 August 2024

Abstract The gut is a digestive organ that absorbs nutrients but also plays a vital role in immune response and defense against external compounds. The complex interaction between the gut microbiota and other organs including the immune system of the host has been known in various contexts, yielding the notion of ‘axes’ between the gut and other organs. While the presence of various gut-organ axes has been reported, the lack of adequate in vitro model systems for studying this interaction has restricted a deeper insight into these phenomena. Recently developed microphysiological systems (MPS), also known as organ-on-a-chip, More >

Mohammed Bourega^*, Ibrahim Kromba, Khadidja Fellah Arbi, Sofiane Soulimane

FDMP-Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing, Vol.19, No.10, pp. 2471-2480, 2023, DOI:10.32604/fdmp.2023.028661 - 25 June 2023

Abstract This study uses a T-junction to examine the effects of different parameters (velocity ratio, viscosity, contact angle, and channel size ratio) on the generation of microdroplets, related rate, and size. More specifically, numerical simulations are exploited to investigate situations with a velocity varying from 0.004 to 1.6 m/s for the continuous phase and from 0.004 to 0.8 m/s for the dispersed phase, viscosity ratios (0.668, 1, 6.689, 10, 66.899), contact angle 80° < θ < 270° and four different canal size ratios (1, 1.5, 2 and 4). The results show that canal size influences droplet More > Graphic Abstract

JIAHAO ZHANG^1,2,3, JIE REN⁴, ZIRUI LI^1,2,3,*, YIXING GOU^1,2,3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.7, pp. 1439-1447, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.028628 - 21 June 2023

Abstract Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are essential biomarkers for liquid biopsies, which are important in the early screening, prognosis, and real-time monitoring of cancer. However, CTCs are less abundant in the peripheral blood of patients, therefore, their isolation is necessary. Recently, the use of microfluidics for CTC sorting has become a research hotspot owing to its low cost, ease of integration, low sample consumption, and unique advantages in the manipulation of micron-sized particles. Herein, we review the latest research on microfluidics-based CTC sorting. Specifically, we consider active sorting using external fields (electric, magnetic, acoustic, and optical More >

ADEM OZCELIK^1,*, OZGE CEVIK²

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.5, pp. 959-964, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.028371 - 10 April 2023

Abstract Exosomes are important biomarkers for clinical diagnosis. It is critical to isolate secreted exosomes from bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, breast milk, and urine for liquid biopsy applications. The field of microfluidics provides numerous benefits for biosample processing, diagnostics, and prognostics. Several microfluidics-based methods have been employed for the isolation and purification of exosomes in the last ten years. These microfluidic methods can be grouped into two categories based on passive and active isolation mechanisms. In the first group, inertial and hydrodynamic forces are employed to separate exosomes based on their size differences. In More >

Yunduo Charles Zhao^1,2,#, Parham Vatankhah^1,#, Tiffany Goh^1,2,3, Jiaqiu Wang⁴, Xuanyi Valeria Chen¹, Moein Navvab Kashani^5,6, Keke Zheng⁷, Zhiyong Li⁴, Lining Arnold Ju^1,2,3,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.18, No.1, pp. 1-10, 2021, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2021.012598 - 26 January 2021

Abstract Platelet aggregation plays a central role in pathological thrombosis, preventing healthy physiological blood flow within the circulatory system. For decades, it was believed that platelet aggregation was primarily driven by soluble agonists such as thrombin, adenosine diphosphate and thromboxane A2. However, recent experimental findings have unveiled an intriguing but complementary biomechanical mechanism—the shear rate gradients generated from flow disturbance occurring at sites of blood vessel narrowing, otherwise known as stenosis, may rapidly trigger platelet recruitment and subsequent aggregation. In our Nature Materials 2019 paper [1], we employed microfluidic devices which incorporated micro-scale stenoses to elucidate the… More >

Chinnapalli Likith Kumar^1,*, A. Vimala Juliet¹, Bandaru Ramakrishna², Shubhangi Chakraborty¹, Mazin Abed Mohammed³, Kalakanda Alfred Sunny⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.67, No.2, pp. 1369-1384, 2021, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2021.015116 - 05 February 2021

Abstract Microfluidic channels play a vital role in separation of analytes of interest such as bacteria and platelet cells, etc., in various biochemical diagnosis procedures including urinary tract infections (UTI) and bloodstream infections. This paper presents the multi physics computational model specifically designed to study the effects of design parameters of a microfluidics channel for the separation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) from various blood constituents including red blood cells (RBC) and platelets. A standard two inlet and a two outlet microchannel of length 805 m with a channel width of 40 m is simulated. The effect of… More >

Jiachen Wei^1,2,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 103-104, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07721

Abstract Phoretic flow can be generated by different types of gradient (e.g. temperature, concentration, or charge gradient) [1-3]. Within micro-to-nano confined system, the diffusio-phoretic property for proteins differs dramatically from that obtained in bulk condition, due to concentration fluctuation that emerges at microscopic level induced by specific and nonspecific interactions between protein and co-solute [4-5]. The phoretic mobility of protein individuals and complex in solute gradients can be theoretically described by continuum model [1-2] that neglects microscopic heterogeneity and determined experimentally by microfluidics [6], but the underlying mechanism of diffusio-phoretic motion for confined protein still remains… More >

Sitong Zhou¹, Jiandi Wan^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 70-70, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.06978

Abstract Piezo proteins (Piezo1 and Piezo2) are recently identified mechanically activated cation channels in eukaryotic cells and associated with physiological responses to touch, pressure, and stretch. In particular, human RBCs express Piezo1 on their membranes, and mutations of Piezo1 have been linked to hereditary xerocytosis. To date, however, physiological functions of Piezo1 on normal RBCs remain poorly understood. Here, we show that Piezo1 regulates mechanotransductive release of ATP from human RBCs by controlling the shear-induced Ca2+ influx [1]. We find that, in human RBCs treated with Piezo1 inhibitors or having mutant Piezo1 channels, the amounts of More >

David Azria^1,2, Raluca Guermache^1,2, Sophie Raisin¹, Sébastien Blanquer¹, Frédéric Gobeaux³, Marie Morille¹, Emmanuel Belamie^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.3, pp. 314-324, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634186

Abstract Biopolymers extracted from renewable resources like chitosan and collagen exhibit interesting properties for the elaboration of materials designed for tissue engineering applications, among which are their hydrophilicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability. In many cases, functional recovery of an injured tissue or organ requires oriented cell outgrowth, which is particularly critical for nerve regeneration. Therefore, there is a growing interest for the elaboration of materials exhibiting functionalization gradients able to guide cells. Here, we explore an original way of elaborating such gradients by assembling particles from a library of functionalized microspheres. We propose a simple process to More >