Portable Cell Maintenance System for Rapid Toxicity Monitoring

The health and safety of civilians and deployed troops critically depends on the ability to detect a broad range of toxic contaminants in drinking water. There is also a generally perceived need for an accurate, reliable, and cost-effective measurement system for assuring the safety of drinking water, i.e., a simple test to determine "lack of contamination" in military, civilian, and industrial settings. This proposal addresses these important needs by demonstrating the feasibility of a system comprising a novel and innovative, low-cost, small-size, microfluidic chip-based cell maintenance cartridge (CMC), and a portable cell maintenance system (CMS) capable of housing multiple CMCs. The proposed CMC/CMS system will be capable of optimally maintaining multiple vertebrate cell types during transport, storage, and use while supporting both optical and electrical assay formats. Specifically, the proposed project will establish on-chip assays for cell viability, vitality, and function in order to assess the ability of the CMC to optimally maintain multiple cell types for a period of three days in Phase I and significantly longer in Phase II. Additionally, the CMC/CMS system will enable the development of powerful cellular assays based on both primary cells and next-generation engineered cells designed for sensing applications.