Water toxicity detection through perfusion and

monitoring of living cells on a microfluidic chip

Fang Li, Ph.D.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

New York Institute of Technology

1

Introduction

• The needs for fast, rapid, accurate, portable and low-cost toxicity detection method to provide affordable water security– Climate change, rapid urbanization, increasing population extensive

agriculture, etc.

– Periodic and extensive testing at key points of the water infrastructure

– Current method: long processing times and high cost

• Solution: Cell – based biosensors (CBB) – Be able to detect a broad range of analytes in a single assay– Relate the measurement data to cell pathology and physiology– Fast and low cost

04/21/23 2

Highly sensitive, robust CBB system to fast detect a broad range of toxicants are needed!

Introduction

• Performance (sensitivity, response time, reliability) of CBB to toxicants dependent on– Cell layer (cell type, cell seeding density)– Sensing techniques (sensing methods, data

analysis)– Fluidic delivery method

04/21/23 3

Our Method: Electrical cell- substrate impedance sensing

04/21/23 4

5

Results: BAECs v.s. RFPECs

6

Our method: microfluidic device integrated on ECIS sensor

7

Results: microfluidic device integrated on ECIS sensor

8

Results: microfluidic closed chamber v.s. open well

9

Results: toxicity testing- closed chambers v.s. open wells

Phenol Aldicarb

10

Results: toxicity testing- closed chambers v.s. open wells

Ammonia Nicotine

11

Results: toxicity testing- closed chambers v.s. open wells

12

Discussion

• BAEC line is suitable for impedance measurements and toxicity testing – Firm attachment, quickly to form a monolayer, high impedance

value

• Closed cell culture chambers over the open culturing wells– Barriers in microfluidic device significantly decrease the shear

stress and creates more uniform flow velocity– Significantly shorten the response time of the ECIS sensors,

especially for low concentration of toxicant• short diffusion distances• Uniform medium perfusion• volatile nature of the toxicants

On-going work to improve sensor sensitivity

13

• Develop a mathematical model to describe the relation between measured impedance spectrum and cell electrical properties and morphology– extract cellular parameters: cell membrane capacitance, cell-cell

junction, cell-substrate distance, etc.– Improve sensor sensitivity to a broad range of toxic chemicals– Correlate cellular parameters to toxicants level and type

• Combine multiple sensing techniques: impendence and acoustic wave sensor

• Apply nanomaterials on top surface of sensors to improve sensor’s sensitivity

CBB toxicity sensors for FEW system

• Provide water safety data every 3-4 hours.– integrated to the water quality WSNs and provide

information on water safety and toxicity in drinking water infrastructures

– serve as an early warning system for FEW management.

– evaluate and optimize the sensor network design– evaluate the effectiveness of FEW management

system in terms of drinking water safety.

14

Questions?

15