Bioreactor System
Biomedical Design for the Northwestern Shah Lab
January - June 2014
As part of the 6-month long Interdisciplinary Design Projects course at Northwestern, I worked in a group of three other design students to redesign a malfunctioning bioreactor system for our client, Professor Shah of the Materials Science and Engineering Department and the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine at Northwestern.
Problem
Incubators are used in the Shah lab to create a sterile, gas and temperature-controlled environment that is required for cell culture. Compression-bioreactors, used by the lab for tissue engineering, are too large to fit in these lab incubators. As a result, the bioreactor system is compromised by the lack of sterility, temperature and gas control and the bioreactors cannot be used in experiments to culture cells.
At the Shah lab, compression-bioreactors are required for important experiments used to induce stem cell differentiation into bone cells. Due to the failures of the system all research using these bioreactors had been suspended.
Goal
To design a device or system that:
Process
 CommunicationAs the biomedical engineering student on the team, I was responsible for developing a good depth of knowledge on the science behind the project, which I then communicated to our client, professors, and class members, often through diagrams such as this. |  ResearchI conducted user research at the Shah lab, watching graduate student researchers at the lab set up the system and show me how it would work if functioning correctly. |  Design of ExperimentsI designed a temperature-testing setup using thermocouples, and other materials to analyze and confirm the heat-maintaining properties of the materials chosen for our design concept. My work allowed us to recommend industry grade materials and devices for use in the final design concept. |
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Final Design
The final concept moved the bioreactors outside the incubator, while maintaining its functions using our tested heating system.
This diagram shows the proposed setup in the lab given space constraints.
I designed this works-like testing setup to see if the bioreactor system could maintain the required heat outside of the incubator.
The final concept moved the bioreactors outside the incubator, while maintaining its functions using our tested heating system.
Bioreactor System Concept
The bioreactor system final design concept, made use of existing equipment in the lab, along with essential new components to create a cost-effective and easy to setup system that maintained a controlled temperature, sterility, proper nutrient flow and gas delivery. Our design concept was implemented by researchers in the Shah lab after the course ended.
Affords easy setup
Ensures system sterility
Has the correct nutrient inflow and outflow
Maintains stable temperature of 37°C for cell growth