Browsing by Author "Van Winkle, Allison Patricia"

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    Small-scale bioprocessing embryonic stem cells
    (2011) Van Winkle, Allison Patricia; Kallos, Michael S.; Gates, Ian D.
    Embryonic stem cells are capable of self-renewal and can be driven to differentiate into cell types from all three germ layers making them a source of cells with tremendous potential in the treatment of debilitating diseases and injuries. Expanding and differentiating cells in suspension bioreactors is a critical step towards widespread use of stem cells in medicine. The goal of this project was to develop a small-scale microbioreactor array for high throughput experimentation in order to improve the protocols used for expansion and differentiation of populations of embryonic stem cells. Initial experiments were performed with a small prototype array with the aim of replicating the cell expansion obtained in standard 100 mL bioreactors. These results of these experiments led to the hypothesis that the fluid environment created in the bioreactors was substantially different between these two scales. A finite element simulation was created to compare the hydrodynamic environments. Following this, a numerical simulation was used to study the effect of diffusion on embryonic stem cell differentiation in aggregate form. These simulation studies have important implications for future bioprocess design.