#C17470
Inventor(s): Deok-Ho Kim, Amir Monemianesfahani, Patarajarin Akarapipad
Unmet Need
The global incidence of muscular disorders is significant, and in turn, challenging to quantify. Muscular disorders may be the result of direct abnormalities of the muscles or disorders that are secondary to another condition. Furthermore, these disorders may be genetic or acquired. One such muscular disorder, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic, neuromuscular disease estimated at 3.6 per 100,000 people, the largest prevalence in the Americans at 5.1 per 100,000 people (Salari et al., 2022). There presently exists no cure. A common cause of death in DMD includes heart failure from progressive cardiomyopathy (a disease of the heart muscle) (Salari et al., 2022).
There is a strong need for the development of methods to better understand muscular disease physiology and function to in turn study potential treatments with noninvasive methods. For example, the study of muscle contraction force and calcium activity in engineered muscle tissue may allow researchers and physicians to assess muscle maturity and health status, develop disease models, study regenerative medicine, and test potential drug compounds for drug discovery.
Technology Overview
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a system for simultaneous contractile force and calcium transient measurement of engineered tissue. comprises multiple arrays of magnetic sensors and LEDs, an optical unit, and a housing module. This system can simultaneously provide contractile force measurement and calcium transient observation. It can be integrated with the medium- to high-throughput tissue culture platforms. The system for simultaneous contractile force and calcium transient measurement of engineered tissue can be utilized in various applications, including but not limited to monitoring the maturation of the tissue, observing muscle conditions, and disease modeling.
Stage of Development
The close-to-final platform has been designed and fabricated. A preliminary study has been performed on the engineered heart tissue to prove the concept. The device is presently being tested on different types of muscle tissues including diseased tissues.
Publication
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