Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWSA donor/recipient on chip device for automated, cell-based crossmatch to expand survival of living kidney transplants
Antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) after kidney transplantation (KTX) is the major limitation for long term survival of the donated kidney within the recipient allograft. It is caused by cell-mediated immune response and thus cannot be detected by HLA crossmatch testing alone. This project will address this issue by developing an automated cell culture device and a corresponding assay to test for the occurrence of ABMR in vitro. Therefore, a microfluidic device, and protocols to cultivate cells within that device should be developed in the project. Furthermore, cellular response will be tracked by automated fluorescence readout. The readout device will be implemented into the laboratory information management system (LIMS) to directly connect data of the assay with the involved clinicians. Thus it not only provides extra information to HLA crossmatching, but additionally helps the doctor to quickly estimate the probability of ABMR on the basis of a laboratory test, virtually bedside.
Aims of the project:
- Development of a microfluidic cell culture device and corresponding assay 4
- Development of an automated cell based fluorescence assay
- Implementation of a Data Pipeline to integrate assay data into the LIMS (IXserve) and CIS (Orbis)
