Name: Accessible Silicone Chip-to-Membrane Sealing Procedure for Flexible, Reliable Bonding (Video) | JoVE Journal
Uploaded: 2026-03-20T14:13:00.000+00:00
Duration: 6 min 10 s
Description: Learn a PDMS mortar sealing method using vacuum infiltration for Organ-on-Chip devices with porous membranes. This accessible workflow enables reliable air-liquid interface culture for airway, gut, and skin models.

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5 minutes

This work was supported by the Precision Medicine for More Oxygen (P4O2) consortium as well as funding from Stichting Proefdiervrij. My deepest gratitude to Isadora Kraguljac for the idea of using Nile Red stain, as it would mix with the PDMS for visualization of the silicone networks, and to Marjan Reinders-Luinge for her talented slicing and mounting of the membranes. The authors express their deepest thanks to the Pharmaceutical Analysis department and Sabeth Verpoorte for providing access to their Oxygen Plasma Oven, the process wouldn&#39;t have been possible without it.

This study was exempt from ethics board approval under the Experiments on Animals Act as the materials were sourced post-mortem and no animals were sacrificed for scientific purposes (Wet op de dierproeven). The isolation protocol of primary human airway epithelial cells was according to the research code of the University Medical Center Groningen (https://umcgresearch.org/w/research-code-umcg accessed on 14 January 2025) and the national and ethical professional guidelines on the use of human body material (https://www.coreon.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/coreon-code-of-conduct-english.pdf accessed on 14 January 2025). This study was exempt from the requirement for ethics board approval as the tracheobronchial tissue was leftover from transplantations and completely anonymized in line with the Dutch Civil Code and Wet op de orgaandonatie (donor act).
1. Chip-half and Membrane Preparation
<ol>
	<li>Chip Production
	<ol>
		<li>Download .STL design files for the top and bottom halves of the chip from Supplementary File 1 and Supplementary File 2 of this paper. The top mold produces a 5 mm deep chip-half, the bottom mold a 3 mm deep chip-half; both chip halves have 1 mm deep culture chambers. Alternatively, produce a chip design using appropriate CAD software.</li>
		<li>Prepare either a slice file for 3D printing or a mill-path for micro-milling the chip molds. Micro-milled molds will be ready to use; resin-printed molds will require two 24 h 99.9% ethanol washes before UV cross-linking to prepare them appropriately for use as a PDMS mold.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>PDMS chip-half production (Figure 1)
	<ol>
		<li>Thoroughly mix liquid PDMS base with curing agent in a 10:1 ratio and degas in a vacuum chamber until all air bubbles are removed.</li>
		<li>Fill molds with a wide nozzle syringe, degas for ~10 min in a vacuum chamber until all bubbles are removed. Place molds in a dry oven until cured for 2 h at 65 &#176;C.</li>
		<li>Remove solid chip halves from molds with a scalpel and cut the flashing from the edges. Add four inlets to the top half at each end of the chamber and the two adjacent rings that indicate the location for the bottom chamber&#39;s inlets with a biopsy punch. 
		NOTE: For the presented results, a 2 mm biopsy punch was used, and 2 mm silicone tubing was inserted for medium and air flow during culture. 1 mm and 2 mm inlets facilitate cell seeding with a pipette, corresponding to the size of 200 and 1000 &#181;m tips, respectively. Other punch sizes can be used for different tubing or pump systems.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Membrane preparation (Figure 2)
	<ol>
		<li>Download .STL design files for the membrane stencil from Supplementary File 3 in this paper. Prepare the stencil by 3D printing or an equivalent fabrication method to ensure a consistent membrane shape.</li>
		<li>Place the stencil over the PET or PC membrane, holding it firmly as the membrane is cut into shape with a scalpel. 
		NOTE: At this point, membranes can be coated with matrix proteins for cell culture in a petri dish without disrupting membrane binding. This will ensure only the membrane is functionalized for cell growth, leaving the PDMS walls cell-free as previously described8.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
2. Membrane bonding
<ol>
	<li>PDMS Mortar Preparation
	<ol>
		<li>Mix liquid PDMS (step 1.2.1) with toluene in a 7:5 ratio and mix thoroughly by syringing up and down with a wide-nozzle syringe as previously described14. Only 8 drops are necessary for each chip; 1.4 mL PDMS with 1 mL toluene is recommended per batch of mortar and enough for 8 chips of this scale. Consistent mortar mixing is important for reliable membrane binding. 
		CAUTION: Toluene is volatile and highly flammable. Exposure can cause damage to the nervous and respiratory systems. Use exclusively in a fume hood, away from any ignition source, and manage spills with absorbent material and ventilation. During handling, wear protective goggles to protect from splashing and impervious (nitrile) gloves. Allow all lab materials (pipette tips, containers, etc.) 24 h in the fume hood, after which toluene will have evaporated, and all materials can be disposed of in approved, labeled containers through specialist waste services. Never dispose of toluene in a sink. Consult the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for further information. 
		NOTE: Prepare the mortar at the point of use to prevent premature toluene evaporation and plastic contamination, in a non-glass container, preferably disposable, and discard directly post-use. PDMS will cure the surface of glass and be partially unremovable; toluene will dissolve and damage most plastics commonly used in the lab.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>PET/PC Membrane Attachment (Figure 2)
	<ol>
		<li>Swiftly apply the mortar to the surface of the PDMS chip-half where the membrane will be placed with a pipette tip. 
		NOTE: The entire area under the membrane must be wet with mortar. A firm hold should be applied with the tip to produce the thinnest layer possible. Microscopy indicates layers to be between 3 and 5 &#181;m.</li>
		<li>Hold the prepared membrane (step 1.3) at one end with a clean pair of forceps, place the tip on the wet mortar at the correct position for the chip, and let the membrane fall into place. 
		NOTE: Do not allow the membrane to shift after this point; wet PDMS entering the chamber will produce irregular, unusable walls on the membrane. If shifting occurs, silicone will cover the culture area, which will disrupt cell culture potential on either side of the membrane, discard the membrane, and repeat the previous step.</li>
		<li>Gently hold the membrane in place with the forceps and reapply PDMS mortar over the top of the membrane, gently moving away from the chamber with each stroke to remove bubbles and secure the membrane without moving it from its original position. 
		NOTE: Take care not to apply PDMS into the inner culture area of the membrane; this is essential as silicone will prevent cell adhesion and disrupt the natural surface of the culture membrane.</li>
		<li>Place chip halves with membranes immediately after wet mortar attachment into a vacuum chamber and cure them at room temperature under 25 mBar vacuum for 72 h. 
		NOTE: Chip halves with membranes attached must be cured at room temperature. PET/PC and PDMS experience different degrees of thermal expansion, and heat curing will cause the silicone to expand and then shrink as it cools, producing a distended membrane (Figure 3).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Complete Chip Construction
	<ol>
		<li>Membrane-bound chip halves can now be attached to the second half of the chip. For the most consistent results, expose both halves to O2 Plasma treatment (320 mBar, 30 s) and swiftly press them together under light pressure by hand. 
		CAUTION: Oxygen plasma ovens produce oxygen-saturated environments, dangerous oxides such as ozone, and intense UV radiation. Ovens should be installed in a well-ventilated area or fume hood. The oven window should block all UV radiation, but goggles are advised. Combustible materials and metals should be kept out of the oxygen plasma area to prevent accelerated combustion or toxic fume release. Referring to the oxygen plasma SDS document is essential for use with any material other than those mentioned in this protocol. 
		NOTE: If no plasma oven is available, similar bonding can be achieved with a plasma wand or by applying PDMS mortar to the second half and curing the halves together at room temperature under light compression for 72 h13. Although less effective when compared to a full O2 Plasma oven, these options may be used when ovens are not available.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>

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</ol>

The authors have no conflict of interest.

The chip sealing protocol we provide here represents a new way to produce water-tight PDMS-membrane chip seals that are viable for long-term culture under flow, can be produced with limited equipment, and requires no specialized skills to approach. We show the procedure for producing chip wafers with membranes (PET, PC, ECM) bound to the surface with silicone mortar, and show that rapid application of vacuum facilitates intrusion of the PDMS into the pores and across the surface of plastic membranes. We also show that the resultant chips are well sealed and capable of a wide range of culture applications.
There are several different ways to approach PDMS-plastic bonding, a common bonding strategy due to the beneficial properties for cell culture of PDMS, such as gas permeability or patternability, and plastic membranes for their cell culture viability7. These include surface activation with O2 plasma, Corona, or Ozone treatment, which facilitates the formation of covalent bonds between silicone or glass20. Otherwise, chemical gluing techniques using organosilanes such as APTES ((3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane) or MPTMS ((3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane) to functionalize the surface of the two materials by adding reactive groups21. Alternatively, PDMS and plastic substrates can be glued with an adhesive method involving epoxy or other adhesives22. We present a hybrid between surface activation and chemical gluing, with the use of porous membranes and vacuum to produce a physical connection through the membrane that can be bonded through O2 plasma&#160;surface activation alone. By thinning the PDMS with toluene, we allow for the invasion of the PDMS through the pores of a membrane under vacuum, which allows for different membranes to be covalently bound through PDMS-PDMS bonds across the chip halves and the mortar-embedded membrane. By producing a physical silicone network through these pores, we sidestep the need for surface chemical treatment or heat and pressure provided by a hot embossing machine, which often aids these techniques23.
In the current study, a large-scale two-chambered chip is provided (Supplemental File 1) that can have a range of functions. Secondly, a chip that is capable of cyclical horizontal stretch (Supplemental File 2). These devices function as an Airway-on-Chip, while the model can also be used as a gut-on-chip, as previously shown13. Primarily, a step-by-step guide is provided with a number of different options for mold production, membrane preparation, and chip construction that could be applied to additional novel chip platforms according to the desired application of the researchers. It is recommended to use an O2 plasma oven for the final sealing. Nevertheless, a handheld plasma device or manual compression with PDMS mortar has also been seen to be successful for this step24. In this protocol for this sealing procedure, key hurdles and specifications have been highlighted at each point. These include the option to pre-coat the membranes, the importance of immediate use of the PDMS/toluene mortar, the importance that the mortar does not enter the culture area, and how essential it is that the membrane not move after connection with the mortar has been made.
Reproduction of this sealing procedure has been repeatedly performed by investigators with a written protocol; only the following clarifications have been necessary for successful sealing on a second attempt. Upon the occurrence of leakages during stress testing or extended cell culture, a few options can be explored. First, the researcher should ensure the mortar is made freshly from PDMS liquid that has not begun to cure and is thoroughly mixed with toluene. The low viscosity of the mortar is what permits a thin, smooth layer that can flow into the membrane pores as air is vacuumed out. Secondly, one should apply enough mortar to cover the entirety of the bottom and top of the membrane, while too much will cause it to flow into the culture area under compression,&#160;too little will leave gaps that provide a route for inter-chamber leakage. Thirdly, membranes must be flat before and during attachment.&#160;Finally, despite the manual effort involved, the chips must remain largely dirt-free to ensure total final bonding, thus working fast and clean is essential.
While we showed the attachment of three different types of porous membranes in this paper, the function of this method for other membranes cannot be predicted. This is because different chemical resistances to toluene, as well as other densities and sizes of pores, will affect the outcome of this sealing procedure. However, we do show the first stretchable fully ECM-based membrane binding, which suggests high versatility of the protocol. Yet, the consistency of the stretch performance has not been reliably checked, as different basement membrane regions, organs, and sources will produce mechanical differences. Additionally, the viability for cell culture of the ECM membranes is also prone to change over time, both in culture and in storage19. While this procedure works for different membranes and chip setups, it calls for&#160;manual painting of the mortar to be effective, which requires relatively little time but will be successful more often with larger-scale models such as the ones we provide. Finally, while the membrane binding process requires only PDMS, toluene, a membrane, and a vacuum chamber, the final sealing of the chip is reliant on the application of O2 plasma, which is not universally available.
Despite the limitations, the protocol provided is novel and requires no specialized skill to approach. To the best of our knowledge, the production of silicone networks through the membrane pores by vacuuming of the low-viscosity PDMS mortar is the first of its kind. Unlike other chemical or mechanical functional bridging between the different materials underlying a functional chip, this solution is possible in most lab environments.

Organ-on-Chip devices are becoming a cornerstone of biomedical research, with a wide variety of commercial and open-access models being developed in labs all over the world1. As these models become a key part of research, continuing to replace traditional static plastic and animal models2,3, it is of increasing importance that these models are easily accessible and available to researchers of various backgrounds worldwide. Central to this is the accessibility of achieving customized, small-batch development, independent of input and manufacturing costs4, especially in non-commercial or academic models1.
One of the greatest challenges in On-Chip technologies is producing a secure sealing of chips without leakages during flow. A recent review on leakage testing in chip devices identified leaking between the chambers or to the environment as a top mode for model and experimental failure, both in industry and academia5,6. There are a number of reasons for the failure to achieve a successful seal: the small dimensions of the devices, the flow and pressure applied, and primarily the fact that these devices are comprised of different materials sealed together in layers and bridged with different processes6. The range of different materials utilized as culture membranes in chip platforms is as wide as the range of their applications, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate (PC), PDMS, and ECM membranes1. As a result of this, there are numerous different procedures and treatments for connecting these different materials into the finalized devices. These procedures include compression with&#160;glue/PDMS, plasma-mediated silane chemistry, chemical functionalization of structures, electrospinning, and vaporized solvent bonding, depending on the materials involved in the model7. The fact that these processes require different skill sets and lab environments imposes some limits on the academic accessibility of On-Chip research. It has been identified that while the costs and limitations of engaging in commercial systems limit academic access, the lengthy, multi-stage processes of constructing chips and the equipment required limit their independent academic development1,8,9. At the cutting edge of this research, one of the current issues is in the standardization and validation of models for their reproducibility10,11. But there remains a gap in reaching this point for many labs trying to get started with chip development to answer specific research questions, replace animal work, and work in more biologically relevant models12.
In this article, we present a chip sealing workflow that requires only skills and equipment available to most research environments. This procedure produces water-tight PDMS chip-membrane interfaces for three different membrane materials. The process requires only limited active worktime, can be engaged in non-chip lab environments, and can be scaled from small to medium batch chip production.
The presented sealing procedure can be performed with porous plastic or ECM membranes; the example chips provided are built with this procedure for application as an airway-on-chip device with air exposure. This procedure can be used for other comparable devices, provided that the membranes contain pores, which are essential for the procedure. The provided chips&#39; primary application is for ALI culture and airway epithelial cells, but can be used for other applications and co-culture models with mesenchymal cells or gut cells, for example8,13. The first chip provided is a standard airway-on-chip with a large-scale culture area (92 mm2) with two culture chambers, including an apical chamber for air exposure that is separated by a porous membrane from the basal chamber that contains medium and optionally another submerged cultured cell type (e.g., fibroblasts, endothelial cells). For ALI applications, it is essential that the apically seeded cells are capable of maintaining a tight barrier to prevent leakage of media into the top channel. The second chip has the same design as the first, with two additional chambers on either side of the membrane, here with the use of porcine ECM, to facilitate the stretching of the culture membrane through the application of negative pressure, imitating the stretch of a native airway.
Our sealing process brings together several elements from the field of PDMS chip development with the addition of novel conditions, which are two-fold. Firstly, the rapid application of vacuum to the toluene-thinned PDMS mortar, which prevents chemical attack of the toluene on the membranes, promotes silicone intrusion into the pores or surface features of the membrane, and leads to a thin displacement-resistant surface. Toluene produces swelling and deformation to solid PDMS surfaces, but at high concentrations acts as a solvent, hence its use to thin liquid PDMS in this procedure. For plastics such as the PC and PET membranes used here, the toluene will cause distortion and stress cracking if not rapidly removed. It is essential that care is taken when manually applying the mortar to only apply over the wall of the pre-constructed chip-half and never get any within the culture area, as this will block the culture membranes&#39; pores and produce areas of PDMS that will cause disruption and variation to the cell culture capability. Secondly, curing of the PDMS mortar at room temperature (RT) over 72 h prevents displacement of the membrane from the chip-half as well as the mortar, which can happen as the materials shrink to different degrees after thermal expansion.
We provide two chip mold designs which can be made with a 3D printer or micro-mill (as described in the Supplementary File 1, Supplementary File 2), as well as the method for creating a thin mortar from PDMS and toluene14. Using this method enables sealing of commercial plastic membranes (PET, PC) within a device. Additionally, we tested the range of applicability of this process by creating the same chip with a porcine native ECM membrane to produce a biological chip with the capability of cyclical stretch. As Organ-on-Chips are intended to replicate the physiological properties of the in vivo environment, Airway-on-Chips that have the ability to produce the mechanical forces experienced in the body during breathing, such as the shear stresses from flowing air and the mechanical landscape of the constricting airways are&#160;highly biologically relevant16. The used membrane consists of the basement membrane, lamina propria, as well as collagen, laminin, and other surrounding matrix proteins. To our knowledge, this is the first native basement membrane-based chip, and the first with the possibility of stretch, thus facilitating mimicking of the mechanical stress of e.g., breathing, on a non-silicone ECM membrane15. This novel application highlights the function of our sealing procedure with plastic and ECM. Finally, we present the application of this chip and membrane sealing procedure as an Airway-on-Chip that can be used for ALI cell culture8.

<table><tbody><tr><td>2mL wide-nozzel syringe</td><td>BD Emereld</td><td>307727</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2mm Biopsy Punch</td><td>KAI medical</td><td>BP-20F</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Calu-3 Cell line</td><td>ATCC</td><td>HTB-55</td><td>RRID:&amp;nbsp;CVCL_0609</td></tr><tr><td>HBSS (Hanks Balanced Salt Solution)</td><td>Gibco</td><td>14170112</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>O&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; Plasma Oven</td><td>Harrick Plasma</td><td>PDC-002</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>PC Track Etched Cell Culture Membranes</td><td>ipCELLCULTURE</td><td>1000M25/620N403/47</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>PET Track Etched Cell Culture Membranes</td><td>ipCELLCULTURE</td><td>2000M23/610N403/47</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Polydimethylsiloxane/Sylgard 184 Silicone Elastomer base and curing agent</td><td>Dow Corning</td><td>DOWC25100445</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Polymethyl methacrylate (8mm)</td><td>Colltec</td><td>N/A</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Standard Photopolymer Resin (Grey)(1kg)</td><td>Elegoo</td><td>N/A</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Toluene</td><td>Merck&amp;nbsp;</td><td>1,08,325</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Vacuum Chamber</td><td>FisherScientific</td><td>12080253</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

accessible silicone chip-to-membrane sealing procedure for flexible, reliable bonding

Accessible Silicone Chip-to-Membrane Sealing Procedure for Flexible, Reliable Bonding

Organ-on-Chip platforms are a rapidly growing aspect of biomedical research. The expansion of this field has produced a range of different materials and methodologies for their construction and application. While the number of different devices - either provided commercially or developed in academia - continues to grow, a large step usually remains to be taken for new researchers entering the Organ-on-Chip field. One of the central issues in both novel and ongoing chip technologies remains producing a secure and leak-free sealing of chip devices. In this article, we provide a new path to chip development by presenting a chip sealing workflow that produces reliable water-tight connections between silicone chips and three culture membranes of different materials. The presented procedure is accessible for new chip development with limited input materials and provides an air-liquid interface (ALI) Organ-on-Chip. These chips are intended for cell culture fed through a porous membrane and apically exposed to air, such as in a Gut-, Skin-, or, as in the case presented here, Airway-on-Chip. We provide two different chip mold 3D designs, showing their binding to commercially available plastic membranes as well as porcine extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds. This Airway-on-Chip can be produced in-house; the different hurdles that may be encountered are presented here, and a showcase of their previous use as an Airway-on-Chip. This new sealing procedure involves vacuuming toluene-thinned Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mortar to remove the toluene that leads to a thin and strong silicone coat embedded into the porous plastic or native ECM membrane surface. The second novelty of this procedure is the room temperature curing of the PDMS mortar to prevent disruption of the membranes due to differing thermal expansion in the materials being sealed together. This leads to a broadly applicable technique to bind the tested materials, producing multi-chambered PDMS chips with internalized culture membranes.

A novel sealing protocol to produce water-tight silicone-based seals for membranes of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip devices. Intended for labs setting-up chip models and small-scale chip platform development. We demonstrate the protocol using plastic and native tissue membranes. This procedure only requires PDMS, toluene, mold, membrane, and a vacuum chamber.

Organ-on-Chip platforms are a rapidly growing aspect of biomedical research. The expansion of this field has produced a range of different materials and ...

We aim to fill a gap in organ-on-chip design, providing a new sealing procedure for PDMS devices with a porous membrane. Currently, chip sealing is challenging, but our process forces silicone through the pores of the membrane, meaning that you only deal with silicone-silicone bonding. If the membrane is porous, such as for a lung or gut-on-chip, then only PDMS, toluene, and a vacuum is required.To begin, thoroughly mix liquid PDMS base with curing agent in a 10-to-1 ratio. Using a vacuum chamber, degas the mixture until all air bubbles are removed. Using a wide-nozzle syringe, fill the previously prepared molds with the degassed PDMS mixture.Place the filled molds in a vacuum chamber and degas for approximately 10 minutes until all bubbles are removed. Using a dry oven, cure the molds for two hours at 65 degrees Celsius. After curing, remove the solid chip-halves from the molds using a scalpel.Trim the flashing from the edges of each chip-half. Then use a biopsy punch to add four inlets to the top half at each end of the chamber and at the two adjacent rings, indicating the bottom chamber inlet locations. Place a 3D-printed stencil over a PET or PC membrane.Using a scalpel, cut the membrane into shape while firmly holding the stencil in place. Alternatively, prepare an extracted ECM membrane and dehydrate it. Place the stencil over the membrane and cut it into shape while firmly holding the stencil in place.Wear protective goggles and nitrile gloves. Mix liquid PDMS with toluene in a 7-to-5 ratio to prepare the mortar. Using a wide-nozzle syringe, mix thoroughly by syringing up and down until consistent.Place all laboratory materials used in handling toluene in a fume hood for 24 hours to permit evaporation. Dispose of the materials in approved and labeled containers through specialist waste services. Now use a pipette tip to swiftly apply the prepared PDMS mortar to the surface of the chip-half where the membrane will be placed.Using clean forceps, hold the prepared membrane at one end. Position the membrane tip onto the wet mortar at the correct location on the chip and allow it to fall into place. Gently hold the membrane in place.Reapply PDMS mortar over the top of the membrane, moving away from the chamber with each stroke to remove bubbles and secure the membrane without shifting its position. Immediately place the membrane-bound chip-halves into a vacuum chamber after mortar application and cure them at room temperature under 25-millibar vacuum for 72 hours. Turn on the vacuum pump, pressure modulator, and plasma oven.Set the chamber pressure to 320 millibars. Then place both the membrane-bound chip-half and the second chip-half inside for 30 seconds of oxygen plasma treatment. After removing the chips from the vacuum chamber, swiftly press the two halves together under light hand pressure to complete chip assembly.PDMS mortar dyed with Nile red was used to visualize the intrusion of the liquid mortar into the 0.4-micrometer pores of the PET and PC membranes during room temperature vacuum sealing. Imaging under a light microscope showed that the silicone had successfully invaded the pores and thinly coated the surface. Basement membrane-containing extracellular matrix scaffolds also successfully bound within the chip device, demonstrating the broad applicability of this procedure for achieving strong, flexible bonding across diverse membrane types.The extracellular matrix membrane integrity test revealed that the membrane withstood one millimeter of cyclical horizontal stretch induced by vacuum overnight. To validate the performance of the chip as an airway-on-chip for air-liquid interface cell culture, human lung Calu-3 epithelial cells were grown to confluence and air exposed in the device. After 10 days of apical air exposure, the cells differentiated into mucus-producing cells, as demonstrated by Alcian blue staining.When epithelial cells are co-cultured with fibroblasts on the extracellular matrix membrane, epithelial cells formed a confluent monolayer on the inner side, while fibroblasts were distributed less densely on the outer surface and retained a spindle-like morphology. This procedure facilitates the production of organ-on-chip devices in the majority of live environments. It's accessible for new developers and also for lower income labs.Epithelial cells can be cultured in the device at the air-liquid interface, co-cultured with other cell types, and their barrier integrity readily investigated.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Bioengineering

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Learn a PDMS mortar sealing method using vacuum infiltration for Organ-on-Chip devices with porous membranes. This accessible workflow enables reliable air-liquid interface culture for airway, gut, and skin models.

Accessible Silicone Chip-to-Membrane Sealing Procedure for Flexible, Reliable Bonding

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