Training event on 13 May 2025 in Leiden
51 partners with one common goal: The team is celebrating the first anniversary of the UNLOOC project with a training event at TNO in Leiden! A project consisting of electrical engineers, semiconductor partners, optical experts, AI-lovers, biologist, content testing organization, regulatory experts and microfluidic enthusiasts focusing at moving Organ-on-Chip-System to a routine tool for a better drug development means multidisciplinary. The Organ-on-Chip microfluidic systems need to be understood and operated. The challenge: Roughly 80% of the team was not yet familiar with the topic of microfluidics.
Thus, headed by the project coordinator Claudia Gärtner and CSO Richard Klemm from microfluidic ChipShop GmbH a microfluidic and organ-on-chip basic training session was organized, giving the team the opportunity to get “their hands dirty”: Starting with the basics of interfacing the microfluidic chips with the outer-world, the team learned how to use Mini Luer-, Luer-, Olive- or Mini-Luer-to-Olive fluidic interfaces to bring liquids on the microfluidic chip. Air bubble free filling was high on the agenda as well in particular combined with cross-flow-membrane chips that will be used for the later organ implementation.
Special topics were liquid movement with pumps and sensor integration on a microfluidic chip. Special thanks from microfluidic ChipShop to the friends from: Fluigent for providing their pressure driven pump system and in particular their latest device h, Cellix for the wonderful syringe pump, Bartels Mikrotechnik for micropumps and UNLOOC project partner Jobst Technologies GmbH - an IST AG company for the minituarized peristaltic pump combined with an electrochemical sensor.
Sensor integration on a microfluidic chip in a standardized manner was a topic as well. Several sensor integration chips for various sensors from imec, CER or IMT Microtechnologies were tested. The pathway how the Locsense artemis-system will enable a merger of TEER (Transepithelial/Transendothelial Electrical Resistance) and microfluidics was given.
