Author: Shayan Gholizadeh

A quick recap of the goals and initial experiments: https://trace-bmps.org/electrospinning-aligned-polymeric-fibers-on-parylene-stensils/ After obtaining a reproducible optimized fiber deposition settings and an improved device design, we moved on to growing HUVECs on these devices as the next step. As previously stated, given that there is a parallel project with membrane masking of ECM with parylene stencils, we…

The aim of this work was to electrospin aligned polymeric fibers on parylene stencils as means to characterize the critical necessary total area and necessary opening sizes to elicit endothelial cell response in the form of cell alignment among other characteristics typically found in human cells that are adjacent to highly aligned ECM. For this…

The motivation of this work by Daniela Lincoln (master’s student) was to investigate the feasibility of using different variants of parylene (C and N) for barrier studies and to look deeper into the implications of plasma surface modification for cell-substrate interactions. For this purpose, we used and tested a variety of device designs, which led…

  The initial purpose of exploring formlabs SLA 3D printer for a collaboration with Dr. Nicola Marchi (link to previous post). The purpose of the this work was gaining the ability to use a simple membrane on 3D printed platform for BBB modeling and WBC migration though endothelial (and glial cell layers) and collecting and…

As a quick update on the ECM masking with Parylene membrane, we made changes to the device designs. Instead of relying on the peel-off process, we used a simplified design, with the membrane serving as the roof of the channels. Here is the latest design:   For these experiments we continued to use relatively low…

Objective: Determine the minimum required area and number of exploratory cytoplasmic protrusions for sensing ECM alignment and causing cell polarization. Hypothesis: Cells only need to sense collagen alignment through exploratory protrusions extended during initial phases of cell seeding and not throughout the entirety of the cell, and a minimum number or size of protrusions is…

There were lots of interesting talks and posters on organ-on-a-chip models with emphasis on modeling blood-brain barrier. I have selected four of them as a summary. 3D model of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma growth, migration and blood-brain barrier interactions Alanna M. Farrell, Raleigh M. Linville, Gabrielle N. Grifno, Peter C. Searson Johns Hopkins University, Department…

This post is dedicated to our ongoing collaboration with Dr. Marchi at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in France. The basic concept of the project is simple (Fig.1) and involves attaching a microporous membrane on top a 3D printed “drawer”, seeding endothelial cells on top to confluency, seeding epithelial cells on the bottom…

As part of Aim 1 of my PhD, I am looking into mechanical characterization of ultrathin membranes to explore the effects of porosity on the structural integrity and determine how porous we can go with a porous membrane, and last but not least, to quantify the mechanical robustness of Parylene membranes. Recently, the BME department…