Artificial Bio-Bladder

WSS Funding

Source : https://mediatheque.epfl.ch

Source : https://mediatheque.epfl.ch

Motivation and goal

The human bladder is an expandable muscular organ which stores urine and help in its flow control. Various diseases like bladder obstruction can occur that prevent the balder from a proper function. To develop new treatments, including personalised healthcare, a better understanding and more patient-oriented way of drug development and testing is needed.

Chosen approach

In vitro studies provide a solid foundation for conducting these tests. However, standard in vitro studies do not allow for the analysis of human bladder cells, as cell dedifferentiation occurs. External stimulation can prevent this dedifferentiation of bladder cells. Possible stimulations include electrical or mechanical stimulation.

Current state of the research

In this project, we are working on the realization of a soft actuator, so-called artificial bio-bladder, which is suitable for in vitro studies of cells and simultaneously allows for the stimulation of bladder cells. We rely on dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) as driving actuators for deformation. In addition to actuation, control, and monitoring of the cells using the soft actuator will increase the usefulness and also simplify the cell culture process. 

Future work

All in all, we aim to explore the limits of the capabilities of DEAs in terms of fabrication processes and expand them as much as possible in the field of biomedicine.

Publications

Carbon based printed electrodes for DEAs: study of pad, inkjet, and stencil printing

S. Holzer; A. M. Walter; S. M. A. Konstantinidi; T. G. Martinez; Y. R. C. Civet et al. 

2024-05-09. SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation 2024, Long Beach, California, USA, March 24-28, 2024. DOI : 10.1117/12.3010530.

Study of Potential Factors and their Interaction in Dielectric Elastomer based Cell Stretcher

S. Holzer; F. Hartmann; F. Öz; T. Martinez; Y. Civet et al. 

2023-12-14. 2023 26th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS), Zhuhai, China, November 5-8, 2023. p. 2557-2562. DOI : 10.1109/ICEMS59686.2023.10345117.

Transparent Electrodes for Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

V. Chalain 

2023-06-09.

Investigation of Self-Sensing Techniques for Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

S. D. Bumann 

2023-06-08.