Nature is full of inspiration for researchers and companies. ARTIC Technologies, a brand new spin-off from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), takes inspiration from microhairs, such as those found in our lungs and on corals. With these, they are building a magnetic pump system, which they use to control fluids on a microscale without wires and tubes. “The pump could play an important role in organ-on-a-chip applications,” said Laure van der Sanden, co-founder, and CEO of ARTIC.
Since 2006, TU/e researchers have been working on a groundbreaking micropump principle inspired by nature. This idea is being taken to the market: ARTIC has officially been a startup since last month.
The company consists of four people: three confounders Van der Sanden, Jaap den Toonder, and Hossein Eslami Amrabadi, and engineer Marie Monchablon. They focus specifically on cilia: microscopic cilia. In the lungs, cilia dispose of waste products, while on corals they help trap nutrients. Mimic this concept with artificial hairs that you can magnetically stimulate, and you have an ingenious pumping system.
Van der Sanden explains how it works. “Inside the hairs are microscopic magnetic particles. When you move a magnet under these hairs, they move in the fluid, just like their natural counterparts that move through biochemical stimuli. In this way, we create a fluid flow on a microscale. The beauty is that we don’t need physical connections to do this. This idea comes in handy in all kinds of applications in the medical world and elsewhere, for example in diagnostic devices, biotech applications, and organ-on-a-chip.”
Currently, the company is busy developing a new prototype. A total of more than €200,000 has been raised for this; “something we are enormously proud of,” says Van der Sanden. Among other things, the company and Den Toonder’s research group received a Proof of Concept grant from the European Research Council.
Organ-on-a-chip
ARTIC is making great strides this year. The first station: developing a pump for organ-on-a-chip applications. These are microfluidic systems that mimic human organs on a chip, allowing researchers to study organs and disease development without using living organisms; an important application of organ-on-a-chip is drug development, so it can be done faster and with less animal testing.
Organs in the body depend on continuous fluid flow. An important example is blood flow: in it, nutrients are transported to organs and waste products are disposed of; in addition, it turns out that the forces generated by the flow are also important for the functioning of cells. In traditional organ-on-a-chip systems, pumps with tubing and tubes are needed to simulate these flows.
Van der Sanden: “The hairs we use are simply magnetically controlled, allowing them to mimic the fluid flow in the body. This is more efficient and less labor-intensive than traditional pumps. And they are compatible with circulating cells. Other pumps damage cells and our system does not.” In addition, with the microhairs, we have more control over the flow, which is important for accurate “physiological flow” to suit a specific organ; for example, the flow of blood through our veins is stronger and more pulsatile than the flow of blood plasma in our kidneys.
A new prototype
Although a few prototypes have already been made, there is still room for improvement. The previous prototype, although compact, cannot yet generate the desired speed of fluid flow. “We are developing a new system that can handle this speed,” said the co-founder. A patent for this will be filed this year.
Working with partners
After developing the prototype, ARTIC will conduct tests together with relevant partners, such as developers of organ-on-a-chip systems and pharmaceutical companies. ARTIC is linked through co-founder Den Toonder’s research group to SMART Organ-on-Chip: a large Dutch project funded by NWO, aiming to develop a standardized and open Organ-on-Chip platform. The consortium consists of 10 Dutch research groups, as well as 25 companies, institutions and health care organizations. Participants include Demcon and Micronit Microtechnologies.
The Gate, a platform in the Brainport region that welcomes early-stage tech startups, also played an important role in the creation of the spinoff, says the master’s student. “We attended useful trainings at The Gate and also expanded our network. Spin-offs and startups in the region are very open about their experiences and raising funding. Everyone is ready to help each other. That is not only useful, but also a lot of fun.”
The future
In the near future, the focus will be primarily on organ-on-a-chip applications, but Van der Sanden is thinking beyond that. For example, the application could play an important role in catalysis processes in fields such as chemical engineering. “This is just an idea, of course, but it’s good to explore where we can grow in the long term. After all, we founded this company so that valuable scientific research doesn’t sit on the shelf.”
Collaboration
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