![]() “The hope is researchers will be able to use that to identify ways to prevent the spread of disease in the future.” ![]() “It provides a consistent and controlled method of observation,” Veiseh said. (Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University) Rice University bioengineering graduate student Kevin Janson brought together bioprinted synthetic skin, automated cameras and machine-learning software to both eliminate the need for human volunteers and speed the collection and processing of data in studies of mosquito feeding behavior. He said the system also could open the door for testing in labs that couldn’t previously afford it. Brown School of Engineering, said the results suggest the behavioral test system can be scaled up to test or discover new repellents and to study mosquito behavior more broadly. Veiseh, the study’s corresponding author and an assistant professor of bioengineering in Rice’s George R. While DEET was slightly more effective, both tests showed each repellent deterred mosquitoes from feeding. Tests showed mosquitoes readily fed on hydrogels without any repellent and stayed away from hydrogel patches coated with either repellent. In the proof-of-concept experiments featured in the study, Wesson, Janson and co-authors used the system to examine the effectiveness of existing mosquito repellents made with either DEET or a plant-based repellent derived from the oil of lemon eucalyptus plants. Wesson’s research group has facilities for breeding and testing large populations of mosquitoes of varying species. The system was tested at the laboratory of Dawn Wesson, a mosquito expert and associate professor of tropical medicine at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Mosquitos are placed in the chamber, and the cameras record how often the insects land at each location, how long they stay, whether or not they bite, how long they feed and the like. ![]() The chambers are surrounded with cameras that point at each blood-infused hydrogel patch. Janson/Rice University)įor feeding tests, as many as six of the hydrogels can be placed in a transparent plastic box about the size of a volleyball. Bioengineers from Rice University teamed up with tropical medicine experts from Tulane University to create a high-tech tool for studying the feeding behavior of mosquitoes that uses (top) blood-infused hydrogels from a 3D bioprinter as synthetic skin, and (bottom) automated cameras and machine-learning software to speed the collocation and processing of data. adviser Omid Veiseh, used bioprinting techniques that were pioneered in the lab of former Rice professor Jordan Miller. To create the stand-ins for skin, Rice’s team, which included Janson and his Ph.D. Each patch of gelatin-like hydrogel comes complete with tiny passageways that can be filled with flowing blood. To eliminate the need for live volunteers, their system uses patches of synthetic skin made with a 3D printer. So he and his co-authors found a way to automate the collection and processing of that data using inexpensive cameras and machine-learning software. Live subject testing can be expensive, and Janson said the “data can take many hours to process.” Rice bioengineers Kevin Janson (left) and Omid Veiseh with a sample of “synthetic skin” - hydrogel constructs 3D-printed with passageways for flowing blood - like the ones used in a new device they created with tropical medicine experts at Tulane University to study the feeding behavior of mosquitoes. ![]() “Many mosquito experiments still rely on human volunteers and animal subjects,” said Kevin Janson, a Rice bioengineering graduate student and lead co-author of a study about the research published this week in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. ![]()
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