Imagination Infatuation - Rayyan Gorashi

In this exact moment, one word seems to capture all the feelings rushing through me: overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by how far I’ve come at imec and by the short amount of time I have left here. With less than one week until the final presentation of our summer’s progress in the Life Science Technologies department at imec, I’ve done a lot of reflecting on the work that I have contributed to this project.

At the start of the summer, I was tasked with optimizing a seeding protocol for a microfluidic device meant to simulate an organ-on-a-chip. In the case of my project, a heart-on-a-chip. This microfluidic device is a collaboration between imec and another external company that manufactures the polystyrene plate. The advantages of using this microfluidic device is that each of its wells have an individualized port for media. This means that all sixteen chambers of the device are independent. This facilitates the intended application of the device, testing for cardiotoxicity of pharmaceutical drugs, in that different drugs would be able to be examined simultaneously. The evaluation of the responses of the cells would be through this microfluidic device that would have a chip embedded below it. The monolayer of cardiomyocytes would be in direct contact with the chip so its electrical responses to different drugs would be able to be recorded and evaluated.

This version of the microfluidic device I work on has the chip embedded below where the cells are cultured.

Like any research project, there have definitely been various unanticipated setbacks: difficulty with cell attachment and retainment, leaks in the peristaltic valve system embedded in the device, clogs, etc. Overcoming these obstacles, though, is what makes research, research. It’s the very essence of the creativity that’s necessary for devising solutions.

Outside of the challenges during the week, these past few weekends have been spent in various parts of Belgium: from the northern beach of Ostend to the southern town of La Roche-en-Ardenne. Funny thing was that until the drive to La Roche, I did not realize how close Leuven was situated to the French-speaking provinces. In La Roche, Jaynie and I enjoyed our team’s, Cell and Tissue Technologies (or CTT for short), annual weekend retreat. Being able to escape the city and enjoy the quietness of the mountains for a few days was simply fantastic. Before that weekend, I had never seen a shooting star; but, for one of those nights alone, I saw nearly 10.

In Vienna for the weekend. 

All in all, it is saddening to me that my time here is quickly coming to a close. I am going to do my best to make the most out of these last 2 weeks: both in the lab and out.