Simulación con COMSOL Multiphysics de atrapamiento hidrodinámico de la levadura S. cerevisiae

Abstract

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a model organism used for the study of aging in eukaryotic cells, the traditional method with which aging is studied uses micromanipulators which makes it difficult, making it consume a lot of time and at the same time many resources. As an alternative to these traditional methods, different microfluidic platforms have emerged that simplify this process. However, all these methods use mechanical entrapment which exerts pressure on the cell, this can affect gene expression which would skew the results of these experiments; As an alternative, we propose a platform that does not use mechanical but hydrodynamic trapping. This device must achieve the objective of trapping the progenitor cell, to let the daughter cells escape. To achieve this, a very precise adjustment of the flows is needed, to design this device simulations were carried out in the COMSOL Multiphysics software, in order to test different parameters and select the optimal ones, knowing that it uses the Navier-Stokes equation applying the finite element method. These simulations provide pressure and velocity profiles, which are applied experimentally for the development of a platform that automates aging measurements in yeasts.