Open-Source System for Real Time Functional Assessment of In-Vitro Filtration Barriers

Microphysiological systems that incorporate synthetic or natural membranes with human cells mimic the human kidney, and they can readily be used to study key cell biological processes as well as drug effects and interactions. We present an affordable, open-source platform for the real-time monitoring of functional filtration status in engineered microphysiological systems. Using readily available components, our assay can linearly detect concentrations of two target molecules, FITC-labeled inulin and Texas Red-labeled human serum albumin, within clinically relevant ranges, and can be easily modified to integrate with different target molecules of different sizes and tags. We show that the platform enables real-time tracking of size-dependent diffusion with minimal fluid volume loss and without manual extraction of media, making it suitable for continuous operational monitoring of filtration status of microphysiological systems. The platform’s affordability and integrability with microphysiological systems make it ideal for many precision medicine applications, including evaluation of drug nephrotoxicity assessment and other forms of drug discovery applications.