Breaking the Mold
Project Description
BU is known for developing scaffolds that support self-assembled engineered cardiac tissue (ECT) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Most of these scaffolds feature pairs of identical compliant pillars between which the ECT is suspended.Spontaneous contraction of the ECT bends the pillars, and contractile force can be inferred from video images of pillar deflections. A higher resolution of this force measurement could be obtained by narrowing the field of view to observe deflection of only one pillar, and assuming that the other pillar deflection was identical. Even better would be to create a scaffold with one rigid pillar and one compliant pillar, so that all deflection could be observed in a narrow field of view around the compliant pillar. In this project, the REU student will design, fabricate, and test such a scaffold, comparing results with that of a conventional scaffold.
Mentors
Thomas Bifano | Ruifeng Hu |
![]() |
![]() |