EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

NextGenMicrofluidics is an EU funding opportunity that aims on the formation of networks of facilities and services for upscaling of key technologies. The key technology is production of microfluidics-on-foil-substrates – by imprinting, and lamination processes, which we adapted for the demands of microfluidics. The technology is related to cell culture devices for pharmaceutical testing and the major aim is scaling up foil-based microfluidic devices for neuron cell culture applications and axon outgrowth monitoring in a cell model for future applications. Usage of foil-based production method provides large area production, non-toxic modifiable surfaces, as well as biocompatibility and allows the combination of several devices, for example at the bottom of a 96-well microtiter plates. Additionally, for the characterization of the cell adhesion on the micropatterned surface, impedance measurement was chosen as an electrical characterization method.
A roll-to-roll (R2R) based manufacturing process will replace injection molding with UV imprinting. This allows realizing smaller microfluidic channel sizes and additional functionalities like electrodes. R2R-based manufacturing uses flexible substrates in production while increasing throughput, decreasing production cost, and simplifying substrate handling [1, 2]. Recently we have shown the applicability of roller-based nanoimprinting for manufacturing microfluidic chips used in point of care diagnostics [3]. For the first time, electrode printing and surface modification will be applied to the microfluidic chip in the same process where enables a scale-up of the chip manufacture. Axon outgrowth assays therefore become accessible to high throughput screening.
The final product will have integrated sensors on the inlets/outlets and can be connected to an impedance measurement device. With that measurement, neuron cells growth will be inspected inside the channels. Consequently, the design of the chips was done and batch production of the different parts of the device has been initiated.