2020-495 Well Plate and Petri Dish Fluid Exchange Plug

SUMMARY:

UCLA researchers in the Department of Bioengineering developed an automated fluidic and gas exchange system that is compatible with commercially available petri dishes, well and multi-well plates.

BACKGROUND:

In vitro assays are typically performed on commercially available petri dishes or well plates. While users can manually modify a dish/well environment for experimentation, modifications of the environment often need to be performed outside of the experimental conditions in a sterile environment, affecting outcomes and risking contamination. There is a need for an automated method that allows for the manipulation of a dish/well environment without the risks and limitations associated with manual intervention.

INNOVATION:

UCLA researchers in the Department of Bioengineering developed an automated dish/well gas and fluid exchange system that is compatible with commercially available petri dishes and well/multi-well plates. The system contains fluidic channels that allow for the intermittent or continuous addition, removal, and exchange of fluid and gases without manual intervention to alter the physical, chemical, or biological conditions within the dish/well. The system can also be used during imaging and for other secondary analysis, eliminating the need to remove the cells/samples from experimental conditions during data capture.  The system can also be pressurized to create microfluidic circuits and linear flow chambers for experiments requiring pressurization in commercially available dishes/well plates.

PATENT APPLICATION: 

Well plate and petri dish fluid exchange plug

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS: 

• Perfusion of cell cultures (petri dish)
• High-throughput perfusion of cell cultures (well plates)
• Parallel plate flow experiments
• Handling and analyzing small quantities of compounds
• Microfluidics
• Continuous DNA/RNA amplification
• ELISA assays
• Biological assays
• Drug and compound screening

ADVANTAGES:

• Compatible with  commercially available petri dishes and tissue culture well/mutli-well plates
• Eliminates need for special equipment for various cell culture conditions
  • Shear stress, nutrient concentration, cell-based stimuli, gas compositions, etc.
• Allows for experiments requiring pressurization
  • Flowing inert gas over a chemical reaction, cyclical pressure to lung organoids, etc.
• Data collection of sample without alterations to the testing environment
  • Imaging, plate readers, cytometers, etc.
• Cost effective

STATUS OF DEVELOPMENT

Perfusion of biological cellular aggregates in commercially available plates of complete invention has been described