Tina Arbatan

Liquid Marbles as Micro‐bioreactors for Rapid Blood Typing

A liquid marble micro- bioreactor is used to conduct blood typing as a typical biological assay. This study portrays the potential of using such microreactors for biochemical and biological analysis.

Tumor inside a pearl drop

The confined internal space of a liquid marble, as well as its porous and non-adhesive shell, offers an attractive application possibility - accommodating living cells inside liquid marbles. Cancer cells in suspension may aggregate to form three dimensional structures, also known as cancer cell spheroids (CCS). In this study, CCS formation inside liquid marble is investigated. This liquid marble application opens significant and novel avenues for biomedical applications and cancer research.

Cardiogenesis of Embryonic Stem Cells with Liquid Marble Micro-Bioreactor

A liquid marble micro-bioreactor is prepared by placing a drop of murine embryonic stem cell (ESC) (Oct4B2-ESC) suspension onto a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particle bed. The Oct4B2-ESC aggregates to form embryoid bodies (EBs) with relatively uniform size and shape in a liquid marble within 3 d. For the first time, the feasibility of differentiating ESC into cardiac lineages within liquid marbles is being investigated. Without the addition of growth factors, suspended EBs from liquid marbles express various precardiac mesoderm markers including Flk-1, Gata4, and Nkx2.5. Some of the suspended EBs exhibit spontaneous contraction. These results indicate that the liquid marble provides a suitable microenvironment to induce EB formation and spontaneous cardiac mesoderm differentiation. Some of the EBs are subsequently plated onto gelatin-coated tissue culture dishes. Plated EBs express mature cardiac markers atrial myosin light chain 2a (MLC2a) and ventricular myosin light chain (MLC2v), and the cardiac structural marker α-actinin. More than 60% of the plated EBs exhibit spontaneous contraction and express mature cardiomyocyte marker cardiac troponin T (cTnT), indicating that these EBs have differentiated into functional cardiomyocytes. Together, these results demonstrate that the liquid-marble technique is an easily employed, cost effective, and efficient approach to generate EBs and facilitating their cardiogenesis.

A novel technique for the formation of embryoid bodies inside liquid marbles

The significant and inherent limitations associated with commonly used methods of in vitro embryoid body (EB) formation motivate the development of novel, facile, efficient and reproducible techniques. In this study we report the possibility of using “liquid marbles” as facile and efficient micro bioreactors for in vitro EB formation. To exploit liquid marbles as micro biological reactors, embryonic stem cells (ES cells) were inoculated into liquid marbles containing embryonic cell growth medium. Herein we show how the confined internal space of a liquid marble, along with the porous and non-adhesive properties of the highly hydrophobic liquid marble shell, can provide the necessary conditions for the formation of uniform EBs inside liquid marbles. Factors such as the powder particle size, the liquid marble volume and the cell seeding density inside each liquid marble were also investigated to evaluate the effects of varying experimental conditions on the efficiency of EB formation within a liquid marble.

Liquid marble as microbioreactor for bioengineering applications

This paper reports the use of liquid marbles (LMs) as miniature bioreactors to produce three-dimensional (3D) spheroids including tumor-like spheriods from cancer cells and embryoid bodies (EBs) from stem cells. A liquid marble microbioreactor is prepared by placing a drop of cell suspension onto a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particle bed. Without the addition of growth factors, suspended EBs from liquid marbles exhibit spontaneous contraction. These results indicate that the liquid marble provides a suitable microenvironment to induce EB formation and spontaneous cardiac differentiation. The EBs were further plated onto gelatin-coated tissue culture dishes. Plated EBs express mature cardiomyocyte marker cardiac troponinT (cTnT), indicating that these EBs have differentiated into functional cardiomyocytes. The cardiomyocytes generated using this liquid marble approach could be useful for transplantation.