Session Detail

An novel feasible treatment for aged macular degeneration (AMD) is an implantable artificial sub-retinal chips using electronic components, which have replaced photo-receptors. Owing to this chip will be implanted and used for very long periods, the connection and the biocompatibility between the electrodes and the remaining cells in retina is still a problem. Our lab has combined inkjet printing technology and a biocompatible material- graphene oxide(GO) to build an micro-patterned interface to make RPE cell attach to the mi-cro electrodes on the chip[1]. In order to implant our chip into photoreceptor layer to solve dysfunctional photoreceptors, we culture PC12(rat adrenal medulla pheochromocytoma) on the chip by applying inkjet printing and graphene oxide we have tested for RPE cells. In this study, we found that the electrical stimulation from the microelectrode transmit through micro-patterned GO and affect PC12 differentiation. The surface-coating technology would help the sub-retinal chip being more biocompatible for long-term implantation, which could be effectively applied in retina tissue engineering and therapy. And through culturing PC12 on the microelectrode, we can further understand the electrical signal output when we im-plant the chip into human retina.

 

The lack of targeted NO delivery systems with a prolonged half-life and sustained NO release mechanism has hindered applications of this approach in cancer treatment. Here, we report the development of NanoNO—a nanoscale NO carrier with a sustained release profile that efficiently delivers NO into hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in vitro and in vivo. And we applied NanoNO for orthotopic liver cancer model. We demonstrated that NanoNO would be a potential system for delivery of NO to treat cancer.

 

Liquid biopsy has been reported that can apply in cancer diagnostic. It’s minimal invasive and faster than tradi-tional tissue biopsies[1, 2]. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are shed from primary tumors and travel through the blood circu-lation to distant organs. Circulating tumor microemboli (CTM) are potentially important cancer biomarkers, which is defined as aggregates CTCs (more than two), anti-apoptosis and protec-tion from anoikis [3]. The role that CTM played in cancer me-tastasis or significance was still unknown. Several studies have shown that it was still unclear to identify CTCs and CTM from the peripheral blood, because the lack of detection methods. From the inspiration of liquid-biopsy, we expect to reach the goal real-time monitor and capture CTCs and CTM immedi-ately via our sensitive and specific nano-interface microfluidic chip and identify CTCs and CTM from the peripheral blood for prognosis and cancer treatment. Our system will divide into two parts. First part, since CTM's size is bigger than CTCs, we use this characteristic to separate CTCs and CTM into two groups. The second part, the developed system, which immobilized an-tibodies as a nano-bio interfaced to recognize if it is CTCs or CTM. The system's greatest advantage is that we don't need pretreatment to the whole blood, and can also two-factor au-thentication.

 

Exosomes, nanovesicles which released from tumor cells and exists in liquid biopsy, are a promising candidate in cancer diagnosis due to its noninvasively diagnosability and capabil-ity to monitor molecular changes in tumors throughout the therapy.[1] They involves in intercellular communications and transportations of proteins, RNA, and other molecules. More importantly, exosomes are one of the biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis as they are released into the blood stream during tumor's development. Besides, before metastasis, exo-somes are secreted into human's circulating system and reaching the new distinct site or organ to establish a micro-environment suitable for metastasis, while circulating tumor cells start being released into the blood stream only when metastasis has progressed. In order to fight more time for cancer sufferers and also be able to track the status of tumor on the curing patients immediately.

 

When it comes to bacteria detection, the traditional method, plate count, is a time consuming and high manpower demanding method. Therefore, a device for bacteria fast detection is urgently needed. Ring-shaped interdigitated electrode (RIDE) is developed to rapid monitor the concentration of the bacteria samples based on the theory of dielectrophoresis (DEP) and AC electroosmosis (ACEO). While RIDE chip is operating, the sample which was experienced the pretreatment is dropped on the surface. Then input the appropriate AC signal to generate the electrokinetic force to concentrate the bacteria into the center detection zone through the interaction of DEP force and ACEO force. At the same time, using the microscopy CCD to capture the collection result per minute. Appling the analysis software to analyze the image above, the data of RIDE count can be obtained within 30 sec. To make a comparison of the results of RIDE count and the results of plant count, the calibration curve can be built. Compare to the traditional way of bacteria detection, the strengths of RIDE platform involve rapid counting, less sample required, and low cost. So far, the main application of RIDE is to detect the concentration of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in the fermentation industry. In the future, to expand the detection field of medical bacteria detection, such as urine examination of bacteriuria patients and enteric microflora analysis is the application that can be expected.