Jasmine Baste

School: Illinois Institute of Technology

Major: Engineerings

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-x29x-7w21

Jasmine is a 4th Year at Illinois Tech majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a specialization in Cell and Tissue Engineering. She is an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Bhushan's microfluidic tissue engineering lab. Currently, she is President of the Camras Scholars Program, a member of IIT's Pre-med American Medical Student Association(AMSA) chapter, and a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha-Zeta Phi. She actively volunteers at a local medical clinic as well in addition to leading a program to teach middle schoolers 3D printing. In her free time, you can find her running along the lakefront, going to a comedy show, or trying out a new coffee shop. After completing her undergraduate degree, Jasmine hopes to pursue a career in research and medicine.

Using Microfluidic Devices to Model and Investigate Leaky Gut Syndrome

Abstract

Leaky Gut Syndrome develops when the permeability of the intestine increases allowing bacteria and toxins to leak into the bloodstream. Current methods used to investigate leaky gut are insufficient because they do not properly model the intestinal environment.   Conversely, microfluidic devices are incredibly useful because the cells function better, the devices enable more efficient co-culture with other cells and bacteria, and only a small number of cells are required to obtain the results over traditional cultures.  Preliminary experiments to create the leaky gut environment included culturing Caco-2 cells in two-chamber PDMS microfluidic devices until differentiation; gene expression was higher in the microfluidic devices than in the Transwell plate. In order to model the leaky gut, the cells were treated with alcohol and tested for epithelial integrity breakdown through permeability.  The cells treated with the 5% alcohol had a significant increase in permeability, effectively modeling leaky gut ex vivo. Moving forward, different therapeutic molecules will be tested to determine whether the leaky gut can be restored to a normal state.  The research done here can be applied to intestinal bowel disorders and other dysfunctions in the body to better the health field.