It is fascinating to see how our customers utilize the simple and elegant designs of our chambers to facilitate their research. A recent paper in PNAS by GW Ashley et al. illustrates this point quite well. Our CoverWell perfusion chambers
were originally designed for live cell imaging, with medical grade silicone adhered to a plastic ‘window’ that will adhere to a glass microscope slide or coverglass. We manufacture these in many different shapes and sizes, as customers always seem to need one that fits ‘just right’ into their sample requirements. Ashley et al. adapted our chambers to use as molds to cast polymer hydrogels for drug implants. Their work addresses the complex problem of delivering drugs over a long period and avoiding degradation and elimination of the drug through the renal system. The work from this group used the large-pore, biodegradable hydrogels cast into discs and tethered drugs to these devices with cleavable linkers that cleave at various rates. Thus the drugs are released independently of diffusion rate and pore size of the carrier. Thanks to Ashley et al. for this creative approach to drug delivery and medical science!
