Power Puff Girls

This week our team continued to work with COMSOL and conduct research related to our project. We also finalized our budget.  A summary of some of the research and what we learned from it can be found below, as well as examples of our COMSOL modeling. Circulating Tumor cells (CTCs) can be found in peripheral blood in billions of White blood cells and red blood cells before the first tumor can be detected by current method of diagnosing The number of CTCs in blood from a cancer patient may range from 0-50 mL^-1; that is 0 to 50 CTCs in 10 billion blood cells Due to this rarity the existing separation methods lack the ability to separate CTCs from whole blood. The ratio of cancer cells to blood cells (WBCs and RBCs) is 1:10,000,000.   Commonly used method : Usually magnetic microbeads(microparticles ) are used, but due to their low surface to volume ratio causing low binding capacity and low efficiency. Changing from micron to nano increases the available ...

This week, the Power Puff Girls worked towards finalizing the parts needed for the testing apparatus. Figure 1 shows the parts that have been ordered. Jeannette and Jennifer worked towards finalizing these parts and sending them in to Dr. Gordon for purchasing. For the initial testing, the girls will be using magnets from Dr. Xi in order to figure out the best magnet placement. Figure 1: A chart showing the parts that were ordered for the testing apparatus. From there, COMSOL will be used to determine the strength of the magnetic field and help aid the design of the magnet to b printed. Emily and Esther continued working on modeling the blood flow through the vein and the magnetic field generated by magnets on the surface of the tube. their progress can be seen in Figure 2 and Figure 3. Figure 2:  A model of magnet placement on the surface of a tube. Figure 3: A model of fluid flow through a tube.

This week, our group worked on finding the tools to use for design testing and we made a list to order. The following are the parts that we will order for testing.  1. Abrasion-Resistant Polyurethane Tube for Air, 1/8" ID, 3/16" OD for $8.50 Figure 1: tubing  The tubing's diameter has to be approximately equal to the vein's. This is to ensure  that the velocity doesn't increase in the tube because returns into the body.  2.  Graduated Glass Beaker, 20.3 oz./ 600 ml Figure 2: beaker beakers will be helpful in testing since water (symbolizing blood) will be drawn from one beaker to another 3. SC947 Iron filings-12oZ Figure 3: Iron oxide shavings Iron oxide shavings will be used instead of magnetic nanoparticles. for testing the magnetic field of the permanent magnet. We are still looking for the smallest size  to fit the qualifications of nanoparticles better.  4.  Plastic Syringe with Luer Lock Tip, 0.17 o...

For week 4, We focused on modules,  Comsol introduction, and Shake down testing.  1. we brainstormed the modules that our  designs will accomplish and brainstormed different ideas on how we can put the modules in action/ How our design will function . Below are the mind maps, developed using coggle  of the 6 modules ( functions) that our design will have to accomplish. 1. Getting blood from the body 2. Injecting nanoparticles 3. Creating turbulence, to increase the chance of binding between cancer cells and magnetic nanoparticles 4. Collecting Magnetic Nanoparticles 5. Extracting Magnetic Nanopartilces from the site of collection 6. Returning the Blood into the Body 2. We also had a comsol study session with Dr. Xi ( Right figure), Below are pictures of what we talked about and started to model( as a tutorial (left figure)) in comsol for the rest of the week. 3. Apart f...

This week we brainstormed concept ideas for our top 3 strategies and picked the best concepts for each strategy. Brainstorm ideas for strategy 1: Separating the blood to increase concentration of tumor cells and collecting in Vivo Concept 3 Concept 3 Concept 2 Concept 2 Concept 2 CONCEPTS Separating the blood to increase concentration of tumor cells and collecting in Vivo Continuous blood flow, with separation to increase the concentration of tumor cells and collection/filtering in vitro Collecting large amounts of blood, and separating the blood without re-injecting the blood Permanent magnets on surface of the skin to attract magnetic nanoparticles, then extract them using a syringe Use implanted sensors to recognize the proteins on the tumor cells and release nanoparticles to attach to the tumor cells, then the nanoparticles are filtered using magnets. Use molecules that when attached to tumor cells, cause them to shrivel. Then they can be filte...