A Cataño Jorge, Farthing Steven, Mascarenhas Zeus, Lake Nathaniel, Yarlagadda Prasad K D V, Li Zhiyong, Toh Yi-Chin
School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4000, Australia.
Centre for Biomedical Technologies, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove 4059, Australia.
Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Apr 25;14(5):930. doi: 10.3390/mi14050930.
Microfluidic organ-on-a-chip (OoC) technology has enabled studies on dynamic physiological conditions as well as being deployed in drug testing applications. A microfluidic pump is an essential component to perform perfusion cell culture in OoC devices. However, it is challenging to have a single pump that can fulfil both the customization function needed to mimic a myriad of physiological flow rates and profiles found in vivo and multiplexing requirements (i.e., low cost, small footprint) for drug testing operations. The advent of 3D printing technology and open-source programmable electronic controllers presents an opportunity to democratize the fabrication of mini-peristaltic pumps suitable for microfluidic applications at a fraction of the cost of commercial microfluidic pumps. However, existing 3D-printed peristaltic pumps have mainly focused on demonstrating the feasibility of using 3D printing to fabricate the structural components of the pump and neglected user experience and customization capability. Here, we present a user-centric programmable 3D-printed mini-peristaltic pump with a compact design and low manufacturing cost (~USD 175) suitable for perfusion OoC culture applications. The pump consists of a user-friendly, wired electronic module that controls the operation of a peristaltic pump module. The peristaltic pump module comprises an air-sealed stepper motor connected to a 3D-printed peristaltic assembly, which can withstand the high-humidity environment of a cell culture incubator. We demonstrated that this pump allows users to either program the electronic module or use different-sized tubing to deliver a wide range of flow rates and flow profiles. The pump also has multiplexing capability as it can accommodate multiple tubing. The performance and user-friendliness of this low-cost, compact pump can be easily deployed for various OoC applications.
微流控芯片器官（OoC）技术能够开展动态生理条件研究，并已应用于药物测试。微流控泵是在OoC设备中进行灌注细胞培养的关键组件。然而，要找到一款既能满足模拟体内多种生理流速和流量分布所需的定制功能，又能满足药物测试操作的多路复用要求（即低成本、小尺寸）的单一泵具颇具挑战。3D打印技术和开源可编程电子控制器的出现，为以商业化微流控泵成本的一小部分实现适合微流控应用的微型蠕动泵的民主化制造提供了契机。然而，现有的3D打印蠕动泵主要侧重于展示使用3D打印制造泵结构部件的可行性，而忽视了用户体验和定制能力。在此，我们展示一款以用户为中心的可编程3D打印微型蠕动泵，其设计紧凑，制造成本低（约175美元），适用于灌注式OoC培养应用。该泵由一个便于用户操作的有线电子模块组成，用于控制蠕动泵模块的运行。蠕动泵模块包括一个气密步进电机，连接到一个3D打印的蠕动组件，该组件能够耐受细胞培养箱的高湿度环境。我们证明，这款泵允许用户对电子模块进行编程，或使用不同尺寸的 tubing 来实现广泛的流速和流量分布。该泵还具有多路复用能力，因为它可以容纳多个 tubing。这款低成本、紧凑泵的性能和用户友好性使其能够轻松应用于各种OoC应用。
