Mechanical characteristic variation in microfluidic channels
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Kramer, Noah
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The technological advances for the delivery of nanoparticles and other nanomaterials into cells has yielded promising results, however many of the current methods have major limitations, such as cell viability. An alternative method involves the use of microfluidic devices to induce rapid cellular compression, which disrupts the cell membrane. The operating gap size has shown to be an important factor for cargo delivery; however, higher flow rates have been shown to reduce the operating gap size due to PDMS deformation, which impacts the efficiency of cargo delivery. In this study, a relationship between flow rate and deformation is established, followed by a relationship in the device deformation and subsequent delivery efficiency of FITC Dextran to Jurkat cells. It is determined that a reduction in device deformation corresponds to an increase in delivery efficiency, and therefore improved device performance. These results suggest that making the switch from PDMS-based devices to epoxy resin would result in better device performance due to the stiffer material being more resistant to deformation.
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Undergraduate Research Option Thesis