DR. SUZANNE THARIN, MD, PHD
Medical Practice in Palo Alto, CA

2014005, Feb 27, 2014

Sep 29, 2011

13/876293

Roger Dale Kamm - Cambridge MA, US
Haruhiko Harry Asada - Cambridge MA, US
Waleed Ahmed Farahat - Newton MA, US
Ioannis K. Zervantonakis - Cambridge MA, US
Levi B. Wood - Cambridge MA, US
Chandrasekhar Kothapalli - Cleveland OH, US
Seok Chung - Seoul, KR
Jeffrey D. Macklis - Brookline MA, US
Suzanne Tharin - Palo Alto CA, US
Johanna Varner - Salt Lake City UT, US
Young Kum Park - Singapore, SG
Kwang Ho Lee - Cambridge MA, US
Le Thanh Tu Nguyen - Lausanne Vaud, CH
Choong Kim - Singapore, SG

G01N 33/50

435 29, 4352873, 435382, 216 33

Provided herein are microfluidic devices that can be used as a 3D bioassay, e.g., for drug screening, personalized medicine, tissue engineering, wound healing, and other applications. The device has a series of channels {e.g., small fluid channels) in a small polymer block wherein one or more of the channels can be filled with a biologically relevant gel, such as collagen, which is held in place by posts. As shown herein, when the device is plated with cells such as endothelial cells, new blood vessels grow in the gel, which is thick enough for the cells to grow in three dimensions. Other channels, e.g., fluid channels, allow drugs or biological material to be exposed to the 3D cell growth. Cells, such as endothelial cells, can be cultured and observed as they grow on the surface of a 3D gel scaffold, where e.g., rates of angiogenesis can be measured, as well as intervascularization and extravascularization of cancerous cells.