Anderson, IainShim, VickieRosset, SamuelJayatissa, Canangama Arachchige Vimantha Sahan2025-01-212025-01-212024https://hdl.handle.net/2292/71070New Zealand has the highest incidence of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in the world. It is an injury where an external impact causes damage to the tissue of the brain and it is speculated that high incidence is a result of the interest in contact sports in the country. TBI is also the leading cause of injury-related death and disability in children across the globe and despite the large body of research carried out, there are currently no therapeutic or biological diagnostic methods for TBI. The mild form of TBI (mTBI), also known as concussions, have proven a challenge for both diagnosis even though it accounts for 90% of the cases. Several in-vitro and in-vivo models have been presented for the study of mTBI but the lack of a clear indicator for the injury shows that a large amount of research and experiments still needs to be done. There is a clear need for a tool to carry out high throughput experimentation to understand this complex injury. This study presents the development and characterization of a High Throughput Cell Stretching Platform that utilises a Dielectric Elastomer Actuator (DEA), a form of soft actuator, to apply mechanical insults onto brain tissue. The device design allows for quick fabrication and the development of a experimental tools allows for quick and easy experimentation creating the potential for a large amount of experimentation to be carried out. A novel method for the optimization of the first part of fabrication process is presented. The device is rigorously characterized to determine strain and thickness homogeneity and can consistently produce strains of up to 20% onto the cells. The combination of an open loop control system for strain and head impact data from a rugby player was used to recreate the strain profile of a real life head impact data. Finally, the simple addition of a infrared LED array is used to demonstrate its versatility in high throughput applications beyond mTBI. The device presented in this study is expected to be a valuable tool for carrying out high throughput mechanobiological experiments including identifying a therapeutic target for mTBI which has been elusive while also paving a new pathway in global cell stretching research.https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htmtraumatic brain injurysoft roboticsdielectric elastomer actuatorsbioengineeringThesisCopyright: The authorAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/