Systems and methods for monitoring behavior of cells and/or tissues in culturing media

A buoyant instrumented tissue scaffold system for sensing behaviors and/or functions of cells or tissues in a culturing medium, the system comprising:

• a buoyant member;
• a scaffold supported on the buoyant member, the scaffold comprising one or more flexible members and one or more sensor arrays on the flexible members, the sensor arrays being configured to sense the behaviors and/or functions of the cells or tissues in the culturing medium;
• and
• means functionally coupled to the sensor arrays for transmitting information obtained thereby to an external data acquisition unit;
• wherein the buoyant member maintains the scaffold and the transmitting means afloat on a surface of the culturing medium, enables the cells to reside and grow beneath the scaffold, and is a barrier to wetting of the sensor arrays by the culturing medium.