Design of microfluidic devices for drug screening on in-vitro cells for osteoporosis therapies

The present work is aimed at the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices for pharmacological in-vitro tests on cells as a tool for individuating the concentration range in which the drug effectiveness is guaranteed, with particular attention to anti-osteoporotic therapies with strontium ranelate. The microsystem consists of a microchannels network for the delivery and mixing of chemical species, designed to provide a controlled drug concentration to each cell culture. The design and the optimization of the microfluidic network were carried out by means of both analytical and computational approaches. Besides, micromixers and wells modules were modeled, fabricated and tested separately. A prototype of the complete device has been produced and further experimental tests will be performed.