Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Poster Session Ib

BP 9.5: Poster

Monday, March 18, 2024, 18:00–20:30, Poster D

Optimize Microfluidic Synthesis of Polymer Beads for In- Vivo Force Cell Sensing — •Jordan Dieter Groh, Alejandro Jurado Jiménez, and Timo Betz — Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Göttingen, Deutschland

Since the first use of deformable beads inside living tissue as force sensors some ten years ago, the technique has been refined with the introduction of new materials and methods to measure deformation. Specially in our lab, polyacrylamide beads have been extensively used to assess forces in all kinds of in-vivo an in-vitro systems such as devel- oping embryos, cancer spheroids or reconstituted muscle tissue. How- ever, using shear-induced emulsions as fabrication method still presents some limitations: a broad size distribution and small variations in poly- mer stiffness. This project aims to optimize the production of poly- acrylamide beads in two ways. First, the adoption of flow-focusing. This microfluidics technique is commonly employed in diverse fields, including drug delivery and the food industry, for creating emulsions with precise control over droplet sizes. Secondly, the use of UV-light as polymerization initiator. These two approaches should massively improve the reproducibility of our experiments, creating more homo- geneous batches for measurements.

Keywords: Microfluidic; Force cell sensors; Cell mechanics; Polyacrylamide