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Naturally occurring iridescent systems produce brilliant color displays through multiscale, hierarchical assembly of structures that combine reflective, diffractive, diffusive, or absorbing domains. The fabrication of biopolymer-based, hierarchical 3D photonic crystals through the use of a topographical templating strategy that allows combined optical effects derived from the interplay of predesigned 2D and 3D geometries is reported here. This biomaterials-based approach generates 2D diffractive optics composed of 3D nanophotonic lattices that allow simultaneous control over the reflection (through the 3D photonic bandgap) and the transmission (through 2D diffractive structuring) of light with the additional utility of being constituted by a biocompatible, implantable, edible commodity textile material. The use of biopolymers allows additional degrees of freedom in photonic bandgap design through directed protein conformation modulation. Demonstrator structures are presented to illustrate the lattice multifunctionality, including tunable diffractive properties, increased angle of view of photonic crystals, color-mixing, and sensing applications., QC 20210225

QC 20210224

QC 20210224

Organ-on-a-chip systems areminiaturizedmicrofluidic 3D human tissue and organ models designed to recapitulate the important biological and physiological parameters of their in vivo counterparts. They have recently emerged as a viable platform for personalized medicine and drug screening. These in vitro models, featuring biomimetic compositions, architectures, and functions, are expected to replace the conventional planar, static cell cultures and bridge the gap between the currently used preclinical animal models and the human body. Multiple organoid models may be further connected together through the microfluidics in a similar manner in which they are arranged in vivo, providing the capability to analyze multiorgan interactions. Although a wide variety of human organ-on-a-chip models have been created, there are limited efforts on the integration of multisensor systems. However, in situ continual measuring is critical in precise assessment of the microenvironment parameters and the dynamic responses of the organs to pharmaceutical compounds over extended periods of time. In addition, automated and noninvasive capability is strongly desired for long-term monitoring. Here, we report a fully integrated modular physical, biochemical, and optical sensing platform through a fluidics-routing breadboard, which operates organ-on-a-chip units in a continual, dynamic, and automated manner.We believe that this platform technology has paved a potential avenue to promote the performance of current organ-on-a-chip models in drug screening by integrating a multitude of real-time sensors to achieve automated in situ monitoring of biophysical and biochemical parameters., QC 20210226

Organ-on-a-chip systems areminiaturizedmicrofluidic 3D human tissue and organ models designed to recapitulate the important biological and physiological parameters of their in vivo counterparts. They have recently emerged as a viable platform for personalized medicine and drug screening. These in vitro models, featuring biomimetic compositions, architectures, and functions, are expected to replace the conventional planar, static cell cultures and bridge the gap between the currently used preclinical animal models and the human body. Multiple organoid models may be further connected together through the microfluidics in a similar manner in which they are arranged in vivo, providing the capability to analyze multiorgan interactions. Although a wide variety of human organ-on-a-chip models have been created, there are limited efforts on the integration of multisensor systems. However, in situ continual measuring is critical in precise assessment of the microenvironment parameters and the dynamic responses of the organs to pharmaceutical compounds over extended periods of time. In addition, automated and noninvasive capability is strongly desired for long-term monitoring. Here, we report a fully integrated modular physical, biochemical, and optical sensing platform through a fluidics-routing breadboard, which operates organ-on-a-chip units in a continual, dynamic, and automated manner.We believe that this platform technology has paved a potential avenue to promote the performance of current organ-on-a-chip models in drug screening by integrating a multitude of real-time sensors to achieve automated in situ monitoring of biophysical and biochemical parameters., National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EB012597), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant AR057837), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant DE021468), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant HL099073), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R56AI105024), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant AR068258), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant AR066193), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EB022403), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EB021148)

There is a growing interest to develop microfluidic bioreactors and organ-on-chipplatforms with integrated sensors to monitor their physicochemical properties and tomaintain a well-controlled microenvironment for cultured organoids. Conventionalsensing devices cannot be easily integrated with microfluidic organ-on-chip systemswith low-volume bioreactors for continual monitoring. This paper reports on thedevelopment of a multi-analyte optical sensing module for dynamic measurementsof pH and dissolved oxygen levels in the culture medium. The sensing system wasconstructed using low-cost electro-optics including light-emitting diodes and siliconphotodiodes. The sensing module includes an optically transparent window formeasuring light intensity, and the module could be connected directly to a perfusionbioreactor without any specific modifications to the microfluidic device design. Acompact, user-friendly, and low-cost electronic interface was developed to controlthe optical transducer and signal acquisition from photodiodes. The platformenabled convenient integration of the optical sensing module with a microfluidicbioreactor. Human dermal fibroblasts were cultivated in the bioreactor, and thevalues of pH and dissolved oxygen levels in the flowing culture medium were measuredcontinuously for up to 3 days. Our integrated microfluidic system providesa new analytical platform with ease of fabrication and operation, which can beadapted for applications in various microfluidic cell culture and organ-on-chipdevices., QC 20210225