Artificial Cilia for the Investigation of Cell Cooperativity in Wound Healing

Keith Williams

Department of Physics, UVa

Brian Helmke

Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science, UVa

Mool Gupta

Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, UVa

Kurt Kolasinski (unfunded collaborator) Chemistry, West Chester University

The mechanisms for regenerative growth of communities of cells in the context of an arterial lesion are poorly understood. To address this problem, we propose a flexible, microstructured device that will permit us to isolate the roles of growth factors, fluidic parameters and Cooperativity in the growth of communities of cells. We will develop functionalized, artificial cilia by stamp replication from laser-textured silicon. The resulting flexible structures will be labeled with the tissue matrix factors that govern wound healing at the interface between blood and the artery wall. Placed within fluidic channels that emulate real hemodynamic profiles, the patches of functionalized, artificial cilia will permit culturing and rapid-throughout screening. The resulting data will be used to address clinical strategies for wound healing with fresh insight, and to permit our team to assess the possibility of developing implantable fluidic channels with functionalized, microstructured cilia. Our multidisciplinary team includes investigators and students from three departments and two schools at UVa, as well as an unfunded collaborator at West Chester University. This seed program will enable our team to strengthen ties to the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and to compile data for follow-on proposals and pertinent patent disclosures. Two undergraduate students will conduct this collaborative research in the context of a Biomedical Engineering Senior Capstone Project with a graduate student consultant.