Bioreactor cassettes help study of bacterial infections

News

Researchers have found a way to mimic conditions in intestines with millifluidic perfusion cassettes, an advance that gives them a mechanical model for the real-time growth of bacterial infections. 

In a new study from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, the team demonstrated a lab tool that simplifies simulations of the human intestine, making it more practical to find treatments for diseases like infectious diarrhoea.

Led by bioengineer Jane Grande-Allen of Rice's Brown School of Engineering, the team developed transparent millifluidic perfusion cassettes (mPCs) that are easy to fabricate and operate and compatible with common microscopic and biochemical analysis.

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The cassettes allow non-bioengineers to perform studies typically done with a 96-well petri dish, with the added benefit of fluid flow over seeded epithelial cells infected with bacteria. The cassettes contain micro-scale ports for input and output, allowing for fluid flow and sampling of the environment.

The study led by Grande-Allen, Rice's Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering, and lead author and Rice and Baylor M.D./Ph.D. alumnus Reid Wilson, appears in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

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