About This Project

Trans-Epithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) is an important measure of epithelial tissue permeability. Tissue TEER values change dynamically, however current devices capable of continuous TEER measurements are expensive or have limited functionality. Our goal is to develop a scalable, affordable and functional TEER measurement device to assess circadian tissue permeability.

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What is the context of this research?

Barrier function is a critical property of mucosal tissues. Many gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease have disrupted barrier function which can lead to chronic inflammatory conditions. While increased intestinal permeability is associated with inflammatory bowel disease it is also present healthy individuals. Increased permeability can lead to exposure of luminal contents with the mucosal immune system. We hypothesize that periodic and circadian changes in permeability of the intestinal barrier exist and are involved in intestinal homeostasis and regulation of the mucosal immune system.

What is the significance of this project?

The significance of this project are two-fold. The TEER device itself will be an open-science project and freely available for others to build. This will not only reduce lab overhead costs, but will also upgrade functionality. It offers exciting future prospects such as integration with live microscopy, and impedance spectroscopy functionality and use in microfluidic applications. Changes in intestinal permeability are generally associated with disease, but if mucosal barrier permeability displays circadian changes in healthy cells this may change the way we think about intestinal homeostasis in both health and disease states and the oral bioavailability of drug treatments.

What are the goals of the project?

Our goal is to measure and characterize circadian changes in transepithelial electrical resistance in human intestinal cells . To do this we aim to develop a device that will allow continuous TEER measurements that can be transmitted /captured without perturbing cells. The device will be based on the arduino platform, have wireless communication, and computer data logging. Our design is based on 12+ electrode sets that are sequentially read and can modulate current level and frequency. We will interface this device with a platform that hold the inserts where the cells are grown in an incubator and we will non-invasively record the TEER in these cells over several days.