Physics of Blood

Mimicking blood flow on a chip is an important task of modern biophysics. It helps to understand the invasion of cancer cells as well as the onset of arteriosclerosis, since these processes require the understanding of adhesion of cancer cells or blood platelet from the circulating (!!!) blood to the vessel wall. However the dynamics of these mechanisms is barely investigated and not all understood. Our approach is multidisciplinary reaching from semiconductor physics to medical application.

The topics involved are:

  1. Solid state physics: design of the fluidic chip in the clean room. Nanoquakes are used to manipulate small amounts of liquids on a planar surface.
  2. Chemistry: The Surface is functionalized to mimick an artificially blood vessel on the planar surface
  3. Hydrodynamics: "Flat" (2D)Nano/Microfluidics is used to simulate small capillaries (the onset of artheriosclersosis), branched vessels (often the site of extensive bleedings) as well as post-capillary veins (often the start as cancer invasion).
  4. Medical application: Measure adhesion of cancer cells and blood platelets by mounting the chip on a microscope. Testing the influence of drugs on the adhesion.

Parts of the project are done in cooperation with the medical department of the University of Münster.

Relevant Publications:

  1. Wixforth et al. (2004). Acoustically driven planar microfluidics. Superlattice Microstructures 33, 389.
  2. S. W. Schneider, S. Nuschele, A. Wixforth, C. Gorzelanny, A. Alexander-Katz, R. R. Netz, M. F. Schneider (2007). Shear-induced unfolding triggers adhesion of von Willebrand factor fibers. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 104 7899–7903.
  3. D. M. Steppich, St. Thalhammer, A. Wixforth, M. F. Schneider. Nanomechanics and Microfluidics as a Tool for Unravelling Blood Clotting Disease. In: B. Bhushan, Applied Scanning Probe Methods Vol. 11-13. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, New York, in press.
  4. D. M. Steppich, J. I. Angerer, K. Sritharan, St. W. Schneider, St. Thalhammer, A. Wixforth, A. Alexander-Katz, M. F. Schneider (2008). Relaxation of ultralarge VWF bundles in a microfluidic–AFM hybrid reactor. 369 507-512.