Gerald Zimmer

Development of a Cellchip Based Multi-well-type Bioreactor: a Multi-purpose Platform for Three Dimensional Cultivation of Cells Gerald Zimmer

In this work a novel multi-purpose platform for the three-dimensional cultivation of cells is described, its main component being a polymer chip (CellChip) that features a microstructured area of 1-2cm2. The microstructured area is realized as a grid of micro-containers measuring 300µm in depth, length and height. Depending on the cells and the chip type used up to 7*106 cells can be cultivated on one chip. For the facilitation of nutrient and oxygen supply the CellChip can be inserted into a bioreactor housing that can be tailored to the specific application. For drug screening and other high- throughput purposes a bioreactor with microtiter plate-footprint was developed in this work. Up to 12 CellChips can be incorporated into this bioreactor with independent nutrient and oxygen supply.