Eye-chamber-on-a-chip by microfluidic co-culture of retinal cells

Abstract

The human eye is an important and yet difficult organ to study in situ. Microfluidic technologies provide the tool to model the human eye and allow the simultaneous observation of cellular behaviors under different physiological conditions. In this talk, I will share some of the conditions that are needed for constructing a physiologically relevant in vitro eye model. The model will be used to study the effects of saccadic eye movement and hydrostatics on the fluidic and cellular behaviors on-chip. The ability to control, observe, measure and monitor the relevant variables on a microfluidic chip enables the potential to understand the physo-chemical and fluid mechanical origins of conditions often observed in the human eye, and suggest new therapeutic and surgical strategies.