Innovation:

Stem-like cells introduced into the NS must navigate the complex and pre-existing architecture of adult tissue, which produces fundamentally distinct signals and cues than those of the developing NS. While BME technologies have been used to promote transplant viability1, our lab has examined how exogenous cues can mediate the navigation of replacement cells in situ. The Vaz Lab group developed microfluidic systems to measure progenitor migration in response to ligands released from injured retina that included electric fields. Our galvanotaxis microfluidic assay remains unique because it superimposes electrical and chemical fields across the cellular microenvironment, independently, and without altering the distribution of either field2. This engineering contribution was groundbreaking because our group became the first to apply combinatory electro-chemotactic fields to direct the migration of transplantable retinal progenitors3. Via our biotechnology approach, we demonstrated increased cell distances traveled and increased directionality of cell movement 3-5 times that of either field, individually. This specialized research was presented by invite at the International Gordon Conference in Microfluidics (Lucca, Italy) and at the World Congress of Biosensors (FL). Our unique approach to retinal regeneration using microfluidics has merited an additional independent funding award from NEI in 2020 (1R21 EY031439), and guest editor for a special 2021 issue of Micromachines entitled Microfluidics in the Nervous System.

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