Joint experiments at IBEC
We are excited to share with you the news of joint experimental sessions on the preliminary testing of the catheter functionality. The experiments were carried out at IBEC facilities by Judith Fuentes Llanos and Florencia Lezcano from IBEC, Riccardo Collu from UniCA, and Andrea Bartolucci from SSSA.
The experiments involved the integration of the bioengineered muscle into the catheter designed by SSSA. Together with UniCA, our team evaluated how different electrical stimulation conditions (different waveforms, frequency, pulse width, etc.) affect muscle contraction and, therefore, the bending of the catheter. Among all the conditions tested, the general conclusion from these experiments is that the higher the current, the greater the contraction and the bending obtained. With these tests, the team also demonstrated that the bending capacity of the biohybrid catheter can be modulated with electrical stimulation.
Video 1. The catheter bends once per second, meaning that the simulation was set at the frequency of 1 Hz (this is what we call twitch contraction of the muscle)
Video 2. The bending of the catheter when a tetanic contraction is induced with high frequency of 50 Hz.
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