Sabeth Verpoorte, fascinated by interdisciplinarity

Organ-on-a-chip since 2006

In the shadow of Nobel Prize winner Ben Feringa, another scientific great works in Groningen: professor Sabeth Verpoorte. She is primarily an authority in the world of microfluidics, 'lab-on-a-chip' and nowadays also 'organ-on-a-chip'. The reason to speak to Verpoorte and put her in the spotlight is her involvement with the trade association for micronano technology MinacNed and more specifically with the 2016 edition of the Micro Nano Conference. She is part of THE Organising Committee of the conference and chaired the keynote session of the second conference day, on 14 December. When asked about the most striking aspect of this year's international conference in Amsterdam, Sabeth does not hesitate for a moment: “The interdisciplinarity, all those different nano-related technologies, such as photonics, life science and chemistry, that is fascinating. That also allows me to meet a lot of new people. There is a lot going on in photonics in particular. I learn from that. We had great keynotes in the programme.” Her enthusiasm and her slightly English accent with which she speaks Dutch are infectious. Sabeth Verpoorte was born to Dutch parents in Pretoria, South Africa. When she was ten months old, the family moved to Canada, Nova Scotia. In Alberta she did her PhD, in analytical chemistry, on ion-sensitive ISFET sensors to understand the response of molecules. In 1990, Verpoorte moved to Basel to work as a postdoc with professor Andreas Manz, in the pharmaceutical industry, the then Ciba Ceigy, now called Novartis. "I liked that work so much that I stayed in Europe." After six years, Basel was exchanged for Neuchatel and Sabeth joined the academic research group of the Dutch professor, group leader Nico de Rooij. "You had to find your own budget there on a project basis. A permanent position was not possible." She kept that up from 1996 to 2003. "In Switzerland I also met my husband, a Dutchman. So it wasn't so strange that I then applied for a professorship in Groningen, in pharmacy. That was a risk, given my analytical chemical background. And it may not have been the place to develop technology, but it was to see what the technology could be good for. The environment there at least had an understanding of how cells respond to medicines. That was the start of working with cells in 2003. In 2006 we were already working on 'precision-cut tissue slices', actually already what is now called 'organ-on-a-chip'. What is Verpoorte's research group currently working on? "In the domain of organ-on-a-chip we study tissues. ADME-Tox is a subject. ADME stands for Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion. How does tissue respond to medicines? We are now working with 'endothelial cells', cells on the inside of the heart, blood vessels and lymphatic vessels that play a role in blood clotting and the formation of new blood vessels. You could call that 'blood vessel-on-a-chip'. We are now looking at a few cells in a layer. That is interesting because we can then look at the interaction with the environment. For that we are now using photonics from the company Lionix (member of MinacNed, ed.).” A second line of research that Verpoorte mentions concerns 'paper microfluidics'. “We build flow functionality into paper. We define hydrophilic channels by making patterns of hydrophobic walls. Through the capillary action we make a pump system in the paper that is passive itself. We do this with a view to diagnostic analysis systems for the third world.” Microfluidics components for miniaturized instrumentation is Verpoorte's third area of research. “Micromixing for chomotography for example, 'gut-on-a-chip'. We make an interface between the first and the second separation column. We sample in the first and re-inject in the second column. That gives you a higher resolution, a better separation.” How does Verpoorte view the interaction between academia and companies? “You really have to make an effort from within the academic world to get into the right networks. You need a 'wheelbarrow' for that. I succeeded, but we need to pay more attention to young scientists. Introduce them to the right people and introduce them to the networks. The micronano conference is a perfect place for that. The mix of science and business is there. But we do need to involve the new emerging scientists, make sure they come to the conference. If I now see that TNO is now also going to focus on organ-on-a-chip, great. And a company like HP that is manifesting itself with microfluidics. Incidentally, that is not new. Motorola was already working on it in 2000. I also know that Google is looking for people from our domain. That is what I like about the conference. I want to hear what the companies are working on. Isn't that called 'cross-pollination' in Dutch?”