Computational Modeling of a Cell-based Microphysiometer

Abstract

A CELL-BASED MICROPHYSIOMETER

SEBASTIAN J. ELUVATHINGAL

Thesis under the direction of Professor Mark A. Stremler A computational model of the cell-based microphysiometer is presented in this thesis. The microphysiometer is a fluid based device that uses electrochemical sensors to measure the concentration of metabolites in the fluid medium around living cells. Two commercially available codes (CFD-ACE and FLUENT) were used to model the convective-diffusive transport in a microphysiometer system under development at Vanderbilt University. Two types of sensor model were used to study the effects of initial concentration (C) and cell uptake rate (qw) on the sensor signal. In particular, the relative influence of the sensor and the cells on the output signal is examined. Removing the effect of the sensor allows isolation of cell behavior for various cell uptake rates and ranges of initial concentration. A preliminary comparison of computational results with experimental data is presented. The computational model provides useful predictions of trends, but further development needs to be done in order to accurately predict the magnitude of the actual sensor signals.