Thomas Frisk

Ultrasound-controlled cell aggregation in a multi-well chip

We demonstrate a microplate platform for parallelized manipulation of particles or cells by frequency-modulated ultrasound. The device, consisting of a silicon-glass microchip and a single ultrasonic transducer, enables aggregation, positioning and high-resolution microscopy of cells distributed in an array of 100 microwells centered on the microchip. We characterize the system in terms of temperature control, aggregation and positioning efficiency, and cell viability. We use time-lapse imaging to show that cells continuously exposed to ultrasound are able to divide and remain viable for at least 12 hours inside the device. Thus, the device can be used to induce and maintain aggregation in a parallelized fashion, facilitating long-term microscopy studies of, e.g., cell-cell interactions.

Mechanical properties of primary cilia regulate the response to fluid flow

The primary cilium is a ubiquitous organelle present on most mammalian cells. Malfunction of the organelle has been associated with various pathological disorders, many of which lead to cystic disorders in liver, pancreas, and kidney. Primary cilia have in kidney epithelial cells been observed to generate intracellular calcium in response to fluid flow, and disruption of proteins involved in this calcium signaling lead to autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, implying a direct connection between calcium signaling and cyst formation. It has also been shown that there is a significant lag between the onset of flow and initiation of the calcium signal. The present study focuses on the mechanics of cilium bending and the resulting calcium signal. Visualization of real-time cilium movements in response to different types of applied flow showed that the bending is fast compared with the initiation of calcium increase. Mathematical modeling of cilium and surrounding membrane was performed to deduce the relation between bending and membrane stress. The results showed a delay in stress buildup that was similar to the delay in calcium signal. Our results thus indicate that the delay in calcium response upon cilia bending is caused by mechanical properties of the cell membrane.

Imaging Immune Surveillance of Individual Natural Killer Cells Confined in Microwell Arrays

New markers are constantly emerging that identify smaller and smaller subpopulations of immune cells. However, there is a growing awareness that even within very small populations, there is a marked functional heterogeneity and that measurements at the population level only gives an average estimate of the behaviour of that pool of cells. New techniques to analyze single immune cells over time are needed to overcome this limitation. For that purpose, we have designed and evaluated microwell array systems made from two materials, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and silicon, for high-resolution imaging of individual natural killer (NK) cell responses. Both materials were suitable for short-term studies (<4 hours) but only silicon wells allowed long-term studies (several days). Time-lapse imaging of NK cell cytotoxicity in these microwell arrays revealed that roughly 30% of the target cells died much more rapidly than the rest upon NK cell encounter. This unexpected heterogeneity may reflect either separate mechanisms of killing or different killing efficiency by individual NK cells. Furthermore, we show that high-resolution imaging of inhibitory synapse formation, defined by clustering of MHC class I at the interface between NK and target cells, is possible in these microwells. We conclude that live cell imaging of NK-target cell interactions in multi-well microstructures are possible. The technique enables novel types of assays and allow data collection at a level of resolution not previously obtained. Furthermore, due to the large number of wells that can be simultaneously imaged, new statistical information is obtained that will lead to a better understanding of the function and regulation of the immune system at the single cell level.

Novel Microchip-Based Tools Facilitating Live Cell Imaging and Assessment of Functional Heterogeneity within NK Cell Populations

Each individual has a heterogeneous pool of NK cells consisting of cells that may be specialized towards specific functional responses such as secretion of cytokines or killing of tumor cells. Many conventional methods are not fit to characterize heterogeneous populations as they measure the average response of all cells. Thus, there is a need for experimental platforms that provide single cell resolution. In addition, there are transient and stochastic variations in functional responses at the single cell level, calling for methods that allow studies of many events over extended periods of time. This paper presents a versatile microchip platform enabling long-term microscopic studies of individual NK cells interacting with target cells. Each microchip contains an array of microwells, optimized for medium or high-resolution time-lapse imaging of single or multiple NK and target cells, or for screening of thousands of isolated NK-target cell interactions. Individual NK cells confined with target cells in small microwells is a suitable setup for high-content screening and rapid assessment of heterogeneity within populations, while microwells of larger dimensions are appropriate for studies of NK cell migration and sequential interactions with multiple target cells. By combining the chip technology with ultrasonic manipulation, NK and target cells can be forced to interact and positioned with high spatial accuracy within individual microwells. This setup effectively and synchronously creates NK-target conjugates at hundreds of parallel positions in the microchip. Thus, this facilitates assessment of temporal aspects of NK-target cell interactions, e.g., conjugation, immune synapse formation, and cytotoxic events. The microchip platform presented here can be used to effectively address questions related to fundamental functions of NK cells that can lead to better understanding of how the behavior of individual cells add up to give a functional response at the population level.

Influence of acoustic streaming on ultrasonic particle manipulation in a 100-well ring-transducer microplate

We characterize and quantify the performance of ultrasonic particle aggregation and positioning in a 100-well microplate. We analyze the result when operating a planar ultrasonic ring transducer at ...

An integrated QCM-based narcotics sensing microsystem

We present the design, fabrication and successful testing of a 14x14x4 mm3 integrated electronic narcotics sensing system which consists of only four parts. The microsystem absorbs airborne narcotics molecules and performs a liquid assay using an integrated quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). A vertically conductive double-sided adhesive foil (VCAF) was used and studied as a novel material for LOC and MEMS applications and provides easy assembly, electrical contacting and liquid containment. The system was tested for measuring cocaine and ecstasy, with successful detection of amounts as small as 100 ng and 200 ng, respectively. These levels are of interest in security activities in customs, prisons and by the police.

Microchip Screening Platform for Single Cell Assessment of NK Cell Cytotoxicity

Here, we report a screening platform for assessment of the cytotoxic potential of individual natural killer (NK) cells within larger populations. Human primary NK cells were distributed across a silicon–glass microchip containing 32,400 individual microwells loaded with target cells. Through fluorescence screening and automated image analysis, the numbers of NK and live or dead target cells in each well could be assessed at different time points after initial mixing. Cytotoxicity was also studied by time-lapse live-cell imaging in microwells quantifying the killing potential of individual NK cells. Although most resting NK cells (≈75%) were non-cytotoxic against the leukemia cell line K562, some NK cells were able to kill several (≥3) target cells within the 12-h long experiment. In addition, the screening approach was adapted to increase the chance to find and evaluate serial killing NK cells. Even if the cytotoxic potential varied between donors, it was evident that a small fraction of highly cytotoxic NK cells were responsible for a substantial portion of the killing. We demonstrate multiple assays where our platform can be used to enumerate and characterize cytotoxic cells, such as NK or T cells. This approach could find use in clinical applications, e.g., in the selection of donors for stem cell transplantation or generation of highly specific and cytotoxic cells for adoptive immunotherapy.

Ultrasound-Induced Cell–Cell Interaction Studies in a Multi-Well Microplate

This review describes the use of ultrasound for inducing and retaining cell-cell contact in multi-well microplates combined with live-cell fluorescence microscopy. This platform has been used for s ...

Microfluidic devices for studies of primary cilium mediated cellular response to dynamic flow conditions

We present the first microfabricated microfluidic devices designed specifically for studies of primary cilium mediated cellular response to dynamic flow. The primary cilium functions as a mechano-sensor in renal tubular epithelium, sensing the extracellular fluid flow. Malfunction of cilia has been implicated in e.g. polycystic kidney disease and other pathological conditions. Bending of the primary cilium by fluid flow has been shown to give rise to an intracellular calcium signal, however little is known about the sensitivity to flow duration, magnitude and direction. This paper presents a novel method for studying cilia forming cells in asymmetric microfluidic environments. The microfluidic devices presented here were designed for a dynamic control of the local fluid flow on a cellular level, and thus, enables studies of cellular responses to an amplitude, frequency and direction controlled cilium movement.

Contact poling of Rb:KTiOPO 4 using a micro-structured silicon electrode

A contact poling technique for domain engineering of ferroelectrics using a micro-structured silicon electrode is demonstrated on Rb:KTiOPO4. High quality QPM gratings were reproducibly fabricated. The silicon electrode is reusable and the technique potentially suitable when complex structures with sub-μm features are to be domain engineered, which otherwise is incompatible with conventional photolithography. A non-negligible domain broadening was seen and attributed to a low nucleation rate using this type of electrode. However, under the appropriate poling conditions, this could be exploited to obtain a QPM grating with a short pitch (2 μm), equal to half of the electrode period.