Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing for Medical Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B:Biology and Biomedicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 January 2022) | Viewed by 5039

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, 4200 Engineering Gateway, Irvine, CA 92697-3975, USA
Interests: micromanufacturing; nanomanufacturing; hybrid manufacturing technologies; electrokinetic micro- and nano-assembly; personalized healthcare; lab-on-chip platforms; drug delivery; biosensors
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Micro- and Nano-manufacturing refers to the fabrication of parts for devices or the production of features and surface texturing on the scale between microns and nanometers. This scale is extremely important for medical applications for at least three reasons: (a) micro- and nano-size dimensions are the size of biological cells, organelles, and biological molecules of interest for manipulation and study in medical devices; (b) smaller-scale devices relate to smaller volumes of test fluid required or to a larger number of various tests that can be performed from a given volume of test fluid (e.g., blood or saliva); (c) microdevices usually have higher sensitivity and faster test times, require smaller energy to operate, and are more portable and less costly than their larger counterparts. This Special Issue devoted to micro- and nano-manufacturing for medical applications aims to present comprehensive review articles and technical papers on the use of various micromanufacturing techniques such as micro-milling and other reductive technologies; stereolithography, 3D printing, and other additive manufacturing technologies; as well as lithography-based approaches that are used to produce micro- and nano-scaled parts or features of the parts for diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices.

Dr. Lawrence Kulinsky
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Micromanufacturing
  • Nanomanufacturing
  • Medical Technology
  • Medical Diagnostics
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • 3D Printing
  • Stereolithography
  • Fused Deposition Modeling
  • Selective Laser Sintering
  • Selective Laser Melting
  • Direct Laser Melting
  • Micro-Milling
  • Micro-Molding
  • Micro-Welding
  • Micro-EDS
  • Micro-ECM
  • Ultrasonic Machining
  • Tissue Engineering
  • Medical Implants
  • Lab-on-Chip Devices
  • Medical Models
  • Drug Delivery

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2125 KiB  
Article
Cardiac Cell Patterning on Customized Microelectrode Arrays for Electrophysiological Recordings
by Jiaying Ji, Xiang Ren and Pinar Zorlutuna
Micromachines 2021, 12(11), 1351; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12111351 - 31 Oct 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2151
Abstract
Cardiomyocytes (CMs) and fibroblast cells are two essential elements for cardiac tissue structure and function. The interactions between them can alter cardiac electrophysiology and thus contribute to cardiac diseases, such as arrhythmogenesis. One possible explanation is that fibroblasts can directly affect cardiac electrophysiology [...] Read more.
Cardiomyocytes (CMs) and fibroblast cells are two essential elements for cardiac tissue structure and function. The interactions between them can alter cardiac electrophysiology and thus contribute to cardiac diseases, such as arrhythmogenesis. One possible explanation is that fibroblasts can directly affect cardiac electrophysiology through electrical coupling with CMs. Therefore, detecting the electrical activities in the CM-fibroblast network is vital for understanding the coupling dynamics among them. Current commercialized platforms for studying cardiac electrophysiology utilize planar microelectrode arrays (MEAs) to record the extracellular field potential (FP) in real-time, but the prearranged electrode configuration highly limits the measurement capabilities at specific locations. Here, we report a custom-designed MEA device with a novel micropatterning method to construct a controlled network of neonatal rat CMs (rCMs) and fibroblast connections for monitoring the electrical activity of rCM-fibroblast co-cultures in a spatially controlled fashion. For the micropatterning of the co-culture, surface topographical features and mobile blockers were used to control the initial attachment locations of a mixture of rCMs and fibroblasts, to form separate beating rCM-fibroblast clusters while leaving empty space for fibroblast growth to connect these clusters. Once the blockers are removed, the proliferating fibroblasts connect and couple the separate beating clusters. Using this method, electrical activity of both rCMs and human-induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iCMs) was examined. The coupling dynamics were studied through the extracellular FP and impedance profile recorded from the MEA device, indicating that the fibroblast bridge provided an RC-type coupling of physically separate rCM-containing clusters and enabled synchronization of these clusters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing for Medical Applications)
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13 pages, 48050 KiB  
Article
Guided Healing of Damaged Microelectrodes via Electrokinetic Assembly of Conductive Carbon Nanotube Bridges
by Tuo Zhou, Matthew Michaels and Lawrence Kulinsky
Micromachines 2021, 12(4), 405; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12040405 - 6 Apr 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2130
Abstract
The subject of healing and repair of damaged microelectrodes has become of particular interest as the use of integrated circuits, energy storage technologies, and sensors within modern devices has increased. As the dimensions of the electrodes shrink together with miniaturization of all the [...] Read more.
The subject of healing and repair of damaged microelectrodes has become of particular interest as the use of integrated circuits, energy storage technologies, and sensors within modern devices has increased. As the dimensions of the electrodes shrink together with miniaturization of all the elements in modern electronic devices, there is a greater risk of mechanical-, thermal-, or chemical-induced fracture of the electrodes. In this research, a novel method of electrode healing using electrokinetically assembled carbon nanotube (CNT) bridges is presented. Utilizing the previously described step-wise CNT deposition process, conductive bridges were assembled across ever-larger electrode gaps, with the width of electrode gaps ranging from 20 microns to well over 170 microns. This work represents a significant milestone since the longest electrically conductive CNT bridge previously reported had a length of 75 microns. To secure the created conductive CNT bridges, they are fixed with a layer of electrodeposited polypyrrole (a conductive polymer). The resistance of the resulting CNT bridges, and its dependence on the size of the electrode gap, is evaluated and explained. Connecting electrodes via conductive CNT bridges can find many applications from nanoelectronics to neuroscience and tissue engineering. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing for Medical Applications)
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