New Silicon Technology Used in Stem Cell Research

New Silicon Technology Used in Stem Cell Research

Researchers at Stanford University have designed an experiment to grow stem cells on a silicon chip. This is a solution to the problem of how to direct specific chemicals at particular stem cells; right now, all the stem cells have to be doused for the right ones to be affected. The silicon chip that Nicholas Melosh and his colleagues are designing has a place for one stem cell and up to 1000 cavities that are 500 nanometers wide. The reservoirs each contain a sealed liquid, making them comparable to stem cells’ neighboring cells. Scientist can use electricity to open up a particular reservoir, thus exposing the stem cell to only one particular kind of chemical, and in an amount comparable to what stem cells would receive in the human body. The team is working right now with fat-derived stem cells.

A possible future use of this technology would be to grow tissue layer by layer, so that compound tissues, such as those that are cartilage on one side and bone on the other, could be grown.

The chip is still being fine-tuned; researchers hope to replace the current lipid seal over the reservoirs with a non-reactive gold one, and they need to ensure that the voltage opening the reservoirs does not affect the stem cells. But Melosh predicts being able to use this technology in research far sooner than his estimated five to eight years for standard electronics marketing.

This article from which this information is taken appeared on the online site for Scientific American, September 19, 2005.