How to grow stem cells with a plastic toy

Watch this video to grow stem cells with Shrinky Dinks.

For the third time, a professor at the University of California, Merced, has replaced sophisticated lab equipment with an inexpensive children's toy.

In December, we reported that Michelle Khine went MacGyver and built microfluidic devices with Shrinky Dinks, a toaster oven and a laser printer. Soon after, she constructed complicated 3-D chips by stacking up layers of the polymer film.

Since then, her students have used the versatile plastic sheets to make growing stem cells a bit easier.

In the latest issue of the Journal of Visualized Experiments, Khine and her students explain their trick.

With the right coaxing, stem cells can turn into almost any kind of tissue, but first they must be grown into clusters called embryoid bodies. Taking care of those cells is a real hassle. They are usually grown in plastic plates with hundreds of deep wells, and the fluid in each one must be changed individually every day.

Using Shrinky Dinks as a mould, Khine and her team cast tiny rubber plates that serve as an ideal nest for stem cells as they develop into embryoid bodies. Because they are so small, and a bit sticky, changing the broth can be done with one quick squirt of a pipette.