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Bioreactor for Human Vocal Fold Tissue Engineering

Project Overview

The aim of this project is to re-design and improve upon a previous version of a bioreactor that will be used for the culturing of human vocal fold fibroblasts. The previous design was able to vibrate two pairs of cell-seeded strips under tensile stress, but had design flaws that needed improvement, including keeping the bioreactor leak-proof, subjecting the cells to more stimuli, and allowing the equipment providing the stimuli to be controlled by a computer. Our goals are to finish the design and fabrication of this new model, to obtain a substitute for the cellular substrate, Tecoflex, and to test the bioreactor and cellular substrate for optimal design and operating conditions. The bioreactor will be made from two T-flasks, two moving magnet linear voice coil actuators, two rotary stepper motors, and two linear stepper motors. A total of four pairs of cells will be immersed in a buffer in two T-flasks, and subjected to vibration, tensile stress, and angular changes between each pair of strips. This device needs to be easily replaced with disposable and/or sterilizable parts, fit inside a standard incubator, and have a capacity to generate vibrations within the frequency range of 50-400 Hz.

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Contact Information

Team Members

  • Rachel Mosher - Team Leader
  • Kara Barnhart - Communicator & BSAC
  • Joel Gaston - BWIG

Advisor and Client

  • Prof. Brenda Ogle - Advisor
  • Susan Thibeault - Client

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