Developing organ-on-a-chip concepts using bio-mechatronic designmethodology

摘要

Mechatronic design is an engineering methodology for conceiving, configuring and optimising thedesign of a technical device or product to the needs and requirements of the final user. In this article,we show how the basic principles of this methodology can be exploited forin vitro cell cultures—oftenreferred to as organ-on-a-chip devices. Due to the key role of the biological cells, we have introducedthe term bio-mechatronic design, to highlight the complexity of designing a system that shouldintegrate biology, mechanics and electronics in the same device structure. The strength of themechatronic design is to match the needs of the potential users to a systematic evaluation of overallfunctional design alternative. It may be especially attractive for organs-on-chips where biologicalconstituents such as cells and tissues in 3D settings and in a fluidic environment should be compared,screened and selected. Through this approach, design solutions ranked to customer needs aregenerated according to specified criteria, thereby defining the key constraints of the fabrication. As anexample, the bio-mechatronic methodology is applied to a liver-on-a-chip based on informationextrapolated from previous theoretical and experimental knowledge. It is concluded that themethodology can generate new fabrication solutions for devices, as well as efficient guidelines forrefining the design and fabrication of many of today’s organ-on-a-chip devices.