Developing an ultrasound microbioreactor with in-line bioprocess monitoring for personalised cell therapy applications
Project ID: 2228cd1311 (You will need this ID for your application)
Under Offer
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Mechanical Engineering
Lead Supervisor: Reza Haqshenas
Project Summary:
Cell therapy is a revolutionary technology with great promise across medicine, including regenerative medicine and immunology. It uses living cells to treat or cure diseases. These cells can be derived from patients’ own cells, donor cells or even from other organisms. Challenges related to the development and implementation of cell therapy have impeded its clinical adoption. These include substantial variability in cell quantity, age, and health of patients and donors. Additionally, the manufacturing process is expensive, with complexities in real-time characterisation of cell products and bioprocesses.
This project aims to address cell therapy manufacturing challenges by harnessing therapeutic ultrasound technology. Therapeutic ultrasound is a non-invasive medical technology for generating a range of bioeffects by ultrasonic energy. Low-intensity ultrasound stimuli can modulate cell function, gene expression, and signalling pathways. The main objective of this project is to develop an analytical ultrasound-enhanced miniaturised bioreactor to: i) study the effects of ultrasound on cell proliferation and viability, ii) increase cell culture productivity and consistency, and iii) monitor bioprocesses in real-time. Achieving this constitutes a novel exciting multidisciplinary project with significant impact on healthcare, biotechnology, and biopharmaceutical sectors.
The student will initially develop a computational model for the propagation of ultrasound waves within the microbioreactor. This model will optimize the microbioreactor design and determine the mechanical stresses affecting cells within it. With experts in biosensors (Dr Dai Jiang - EEE and Dr Henry Lancashire - Med Phys), the student will construct a microbioreactor prototype featuring real-time impedance spectroscopy biosensing. The prototype will be tested on retina cells. A cellularised retina model has previously been developed and characterised in the Ultrasonics Laboratory. Development and testing will be carried out in close collaboration with an industrial collaborator, Dr. Shahin Heshmatifar from Cytiva.
We are seeking a student who is passionate about contributing to society through healthcare research and possesses a background in engineering or physical sciences.