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New tool developed at UQ enables “smart” microgel droplets for regenerative medicine

Manufacturing News




A new microfluidics tool developed at the University of Queensland shows promise for uses including restoring damaged organs, according to the university.

In a statement on Friday, UQ said researcher Dr Ruirui Qiao (pictured) and her team have patented a new “UQ-Surf microfludics platform” able to create “smart” microgel droplets with use in a “diverse range of biomedical applications”.

Qiao said the platform developed at UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) could create thousands of microdroplets a minute, each a temperature-responsive research environment for exploring tissue engineering and cell therapies. 

Microfluidics allow liquids and gases to be precisely manipulated. Microgel droplets allow researchers to work with materials in ways that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, though microgels capable of incubating living materials are extremely difficult to create, explained Qiao in a statement.

“The technology we’ve created greatly simplifies the process – saving time and money – with an added option of changing the droplet’s function by simply changing the temperature,” she said, adding that harsh chemicals used by other methods weren’t required – just a change of temperature.

“The level of control you get with traditional microgel droplets usually comes at a cost – the potential contamination of the living material you’re working with,” Dr Qiao said.

“UQ-Surf removes this risk, because we don’t need harmful chemical demulsifiers or additional processing steps to recover encapsulated microgels.

Potential uses included 3D in vitro models for drug screening, targeted delivery of drugs, cells and genes, and advancements in tissue engineering.

UQ-Surf was patented through UQ’s commercialisation arm, UniQuest, and is currently in lab use.

Picture: credit UQ

Further reading

$23 million, four-year overhaul of ANFF-Q completed

Microfluidic chip could reduce radiotherapy side effects

Australian company celebrates 20 million microfluidic devices manufactured for client



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