Dee Sandin
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Michelle Khine, a professor at the University of California, Merced, has built microfluidic devices with Shrinky Dinks. She developed complicated 3-D chips by stacking layers of polymer film. Shrinky Dinks, which shrink when exposed to oven heat, are ideal to make tiny breeding grounds for stem cells. There’s a how-to video showing you how you to can do this at home. Talk about your weird science!  With the right coaxing, stem cells can turn into almost any kind of tissue, but first they must be grown into clusters called embryoid bodies. Taking care of those cells is a real hassle. They are usually grown in plastic plates with hundreds of deep wells, and the fluid in each one must be changed individually every day.
Using Shrinky Dinks as a mould, Khine and her team cast tiny rubber plates that serve as an ideal nest for stem cells as they develop into embryoid bodies. Because they are so small, and a bit sticky, changing the broth can be done with one quick squirt of a pipette.
(io9)References: io9, Filed In: |
Growing Stem Cells with a Plastic Toy
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Shrinky Dinks
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