Patent ID: 11946027
Assignee: PURDUE RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC C  G | IPC C  G

Claim 0:
1. A buoyant instrumented tissue scaffold system for sensing behaviors and/or functions of cells or tissues in a culturing medium, the system comprising:
a buoyant member comprising a sheet of hydrophobic microporous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coated with a surface tension increasing covering, the sheet having an opening through a central portion thereof;
a scaffold supported on the buoyant member and disposed in the opening, the buoyant member being anchored to a peripheral area of the scaffold, the scaffold comprising one or more flexible members and one or more sensor arrays on the one or more flexible members, the one or more sensor arrays being configured to sense the behaviors and/or functions of the cells or tissues in the culturing medium; and
a transmitting means functionally coupled to the one or more sensor arrays for transmitting information obtained thereby to an external data acquisition unit;
wherein the buoyant member maintains the scaffold and the transmitting means afloat on a surface of the culturing medium, enables the cells or tissues to reside and grow beneath the scaffold, and is a barrier to wetting of the one or more sensor arrays by the culturing medium.