News Release

Device could 'hear' disease through structures housing cells

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Purdue University

Lab-on-a-chip Ultrasonic Platform to Monitor Tissue Culture Stiffness

video: The stiffening of a structure surrounding cells in the human body can indicate that cancer is invading other tissue. Being able to monitor changes to this structure, called the extracellular matrix, would give researchers another way to study the progression of disease. view more 

Credit: Purdue University/Erin Easterling

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Similarly to how a picked lock gives away that someone has broken into a building, the stiffening of a structure surrounding cells in the human body can indicate that cancer is invading other tissue.

Monitoring changes to this structure, called the extracellular matrix, would give researchers another way to study the progression of disease. But detecting changes to the extracellular matrix is hard to do without damaging it.

Purdue University engineers have built a device that would allow disease specialists to load an extracellular matrix sample onto a platform and detect its stiffness through sound waves. The device is described in a study published in the journal Lab on a Chip and demonstrated in a YouTube video at https://youtu.be/hPvY0Sj0vxY.

"It's the same concept as checking for damage in an airplane wing. There's a sound wave propagating through the material and a receiver on the other side. The way that the wave propagates can indicate if there's any damage or defect without affecting the material itself," said Rahim Rahimi, a Purdue assistant professor of materials engineering, whose lab develops innovative materials and biomedical devices to address health care challenges.

Each tissue and organ has its own unique extracellular matrix, sort of like how buildings on a street vary in structure depending on their purpose. The extracellular matrix also comes with "landlines," or structural and chemical cues, that support communication between individual cells housed in the matrix.

Researchers have tried stretching, compressing or applying chemicals to samples of the extracellular matrix to measure this environment. But these methods also are prone to damaging the extracellular matrix.

Rahimi's team developed a nondestructive way to study how the extracellular matrix responds to disease, toxic substances or therapeutic drugs. The initial work for this study was performed in collaboration with the lab of Sophie Lelièvre, a professor of cancer pharmacology at Purdue, to identify how risk factors affect the extracellular matrix and increase the risk of developing breast cancer.

The device is a "lab-on-a-chip" connected to a transmitter and receiver. After pouring the extracellular matrix and the cells it contains onto the platform, the transmitter generates an ultrasonic wave that propagates through the material and then triggers the receiver. The output is an electrical signal indicating the stiffness of the extracellular matrix.

The researchers first demonstrated the device as a proof-of-concept with cancer cells contained in hydrogel, which is a material with a consistency similar to an extracellular matrix. The team now is studying the device's effectiveness on collagen extracellular matrices.

The device could easily be scaled up to run many samples at once, Rahimi said, such as in an array. This would allow researchers to look at several different aspects of a disease simultaneously.

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This research was conducted in Birck Nanotechnology Center in Pudue's Discovery Park and financially supported by the Breast Cancer Research Program, a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (grant W81XWH-17-1-0250).

About Discovery Park

Discovery Park is a place where Purdue researchers move beyond traditional boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and with policymakers and business leaders to create solutions for a better world. Grand challenges of global health, global conflict and security, and those that lie at the nexus of sustainable energy, world food supply, water and the environment are the focus of researchers in Discovery Park. The translation of discovery to impact is integrated into the fabric of Discovery Park through entrepreneurship programs and partnerships.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today's toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.


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