Microgrid Slicing Device for Cell Aggregate Dissociation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for dissociating cells in cell cultures, such as mechanical cutting or enzymatic dissociation, result in significant cell death and contamination risks, and lack efficiency in producing reproducible tissue slices for research and therapy applications.
Innovation Solution
A biological microgrid device with pores and slicing beams that allows cells or tissue to pass through, splitting them into defined pieces without enzymatic or mechanical dissociation, enabling reproducible cutting of biological material in cell cultures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If mechanical cutting or enzymatic dissociation is used to split cells, then cells can be divided into smaller pieces, but cell death increases and contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical cutting methods (razor blades, scissors) and enzymatic dissociation with a microfluidic device that uses controlled fluid flow and physical confinement through micropores to split cell aggregates. This substitution eliminates mechanical damage from cutting and avoids enzymatic contamination while maintaining effective cell splitting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a microfluidic device with micropores as an intermediary structure between cell aggregates and the final dispersed cell state. This intermediary enables controlled splitting through physical confinement and fluid flow dynamics, avoiding direct mechanical cutting or enzymatic treatment that causes cell death and contamination.
2Ease of manufacture
If mechanical cutting with razor blades or scissors is used, then cell aggregates can be cut into smaller pieces, but the process becomes very time consuming and prone to contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the cell splitting process by using micropore dimensions (typically 1-100 micrometers) and controlled fluid flow rates instead of manual cutting dimensions and speeds. This parameter transformation enables automated, high-throughput processing that dramatically reduces time requirements while maintaining simplicity through a standardized device architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical cutting operations with an automated microfluidic system where fluid flow automatically drives cell aggregates through micropores for splitting. This substitution eliminates the time-consuming manual manipulation required for razor blade or scissors cutting while reducing contamination risk through a closed-system design.
3Productivity
If enzymatic dissociation is used to separate cells, then cells can be separated into single cells, but enzymes can remain in cells used for cell therapy and contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces enzymatic dissociation with a purely physical mechanism using microfluidic flow and micropore confinement to split cell aggregates. This mechanical substitution eliminates the need for proteolytic enzymes entirely, preventing enzyme contamination in cell therapy applications while maintaining effective cell dissociation capability through controlled fluid dynamics.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a microfluidic device with micropores as an intermediary that enables cell dissociation through physical means rather than chemical enzymes. This intermediary structure allows aggregates to be split into smaller pieces or single cells through mechanical forces generated by fluid flow, completely avoiding the introduction of exogenous enzymes that could contaminate therapeutic cell products.
4Quantity of substance
If traditional cell culture expansion is used, then cells can be grown in culture flasks, but cells must be manually split which is time consuming and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous cell splitting operation where cell aggregates are continuously introduced into the microfluidic device, automatically split as they pass through micropores, and collected as dispersed cells. This continuous operation eliminates the batch processing interruptions inherent in manual flask splitting, dramatically increasing throughput while maintaining effective cell culture expansion capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the scaling parameters of cell culture expansion by using microfluidic channels with dimensions optimized for high surface-area-to-volume ratios. This enables efficient cell growth and splitting in a compact format with automated flow control, increasing throughput compared to traditional large-scale manual flask operations while maintaining cell culture expansion effectiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a biological microglia comprising at least two pores having a size adopted to allow cells, cell aggregates, tissue or other biological material to pass through said pores, and one or several slicing beams separating said pores from each other, wherein biological material is split/sliced/cleaved into at least two parts when passing said microgrid, a slicing device, an apparatus comprising said slicing device as well as the use of said microgrid, slicing device and apparatus.