Micro-gripping of small scale tissues

R. E. Mackay, H. R. Le, K. Donnelly, R. P. Keatch

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper describes the design and simulation of an integrated micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) to be used for small scale tissue manipulation. The micro-grippers are to be used to test the mechanical cell adhesion properties of the gut epithelium. In the majority of sporadic colon cancers the Adenomatous Polyopsis Coli (APC) protein is mutated or missing. Mutations of APC occur extremely early in the development of cancer, before formation of polyps. Micro-grippers were designed and finite element analysis (FEA) was used to find actuation displacements, tip temperature and stresses. Monolayers of gut epithelial tissue will be grown on collagen substrates and stretched under tensile force. Ni micro-grippers will be used to grip the substrate due to its high gripping stiffness and force resolution. SU-8 micro-grippers will be used to directly grip on cell membrane to analyze cell adhesion forces with APC present or absent. The following paper shows the design of the system and FEA of micro-grippers.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationIFMBE Proceedings
    Subtitle of host publication4th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
    EditorsJ. Vander Sloten, P. Verdonck, M. Nyssen, J. Haueisen
    Place of PublicationNew York
    PublisherSpringer
    Pages2619-2622
    Number of pages4
    Volume22
    ISBN (Print)978-3-540-89207-6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2009
    Event4th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering - Antwerp, Belgium
    Duration: 23 Nov 200827 Nov 2008

    Conference

    Conference4th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
    Country/TerritoryBelgium
    CityAntwerp
    Period23/11/0827/11/08

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