BioMEMS applied to the development of cell-based bioassay systems

Biological applications of MEMS technology (bioMEMS) is of increasing interest in the development of miniature and portable instrumentation for cell-based microassays and sensor applications. A major bioMEMS challenge is the physical incorporation of living cells into sensors and diagnostic devices and creation of the environmental conditions conducive for organization of differentiated cells into tissue-like structures. Our work towards these goals is illustrated bq a tissue-based bioassay system we are developing based on a miniature cross-flow bioreactor constructed from of an array of cell-filled microchannels integrated into an environmentally-controlled polymer microfluidics manifold We describe our microchannel array and manifold manufacturing methods and report on the in vitro culture of cell populations in the bioreactor.