MINC: The Mini Incubator+Applicator
An old challenge of cellular studies in the field of the bioelectromagnetic is that applying electric field and looking at the cell behavior with microscopes are often performed outside the incubator. While living condition for cells can be provided inside the CO2 incubators. Providing these conditions under the microscope can be established by a device which is named mini-incubator.
Mojan is one of our projects about designing and construction of the embedded waveguide device inside a mini-incubator which allows us to look at biological samples with microscope while electric field is applied. The proposed device can be used to investigate the effects of electric fields on biological samples during a long period of time (several days or more) and it works in the low range of frequencies up to 100 Hz. The electrodes are implanted inside the cell culture medium to and a set of coils are used around the waveguide device to apply an electric field to our cells. Induced electric field parameters, such as electric field distribution patterns or electric field orientation, can be controlled based on the current and voltage of the coils and electrodes. Temperature and environmental conditions of the biological sample are kept adjusted by the incubator. Structure design and simulation results are presented. In a cellular experiment during three days, the living conditions have been prepared for the cells and they survived during the experiment. Furthermore, the device generates a uniform electric and magnetic field within a radius of 1.9 mm from the center of the cell culture medium by considering a specific acceptable error range.
Mojan projecte is supported financially by Iranian national Science foundation and is protected as a patent. Mr. Farhad Alizadeh had an important key role in this project. Mojan has an electrode array and it also has a coil array for applying electric or magnetic stimulation and, as shown in the following figure, the estimation of the fields inside the device are calculated based on field simulations.