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Cells and particles manipulations

 

 

Separation of parasites from human blood using deterministic lateral displacement, S. H. Holm, J. P. Beech, M. P. Barrett and J. O. Tegenfeldt, Lab Chip, vol.11, 2011

 Particles and cells manipulations are one of the largest fields of applications of microfluidics. Indeed, nanofluidic tools are especially convenient for single cell analysis or multi-cellular system studies (i.e. embryology, etc) as they allow:

• The precise control of the microenvironment of the cells creating a more stable microenvironment, optimizing cells growth, proliferation and interactions even with vulnerable cells (neuron, protoplasts, etc)
• The direct observation of cells
• The high throughput cell sorting (up to a thousand time faster than the usual macrosystems)
• The reduction of experimental set-up allowing multiple processes within the same chips: cell sorting, cells capture, lysis, etc.

 

Based on these key advantages, microfluidics is now used in number of cells and particles manipulations such as:

• Generation of complex particles structures. For instance, functionalized beads columns for 3D cell capture
• Cells capture and detection
• Single cell study: they can be isolated in compartments and then cultured, submitted to dose-response tests while being observed individually throughout the experiment.
• Cells and molecules sorting: Fluorescence-activated (FACS), dielectrophoresis…
• DNA sequencing and gene analysis, etc.

 

But cells manipulations need a very strict control of the flows, inside the microfluidic chip in order to be optimized. For instance, the flows of media need to be very smooth to reduce sheer stress and optimize cells proliferation. For cell capture by column of beads, the flows need to be both low and highly stable in order to create the column as well as maintain them. Finally, for drug screening, it could be important to be able to switch from a media to another very quickly.
It was to address these specific issues that our MFCS^TM series were first created. Indeed, thanks to the FASTAB^TM, each range of MFCS^TM beneficiate from:

• A pulseless flow to avoid sheer stress and cell damages
• An instantaneous control of the flow
• Independent channels to control different type of media or reagents
• Long time experiments opportunity thanks to our MAESFLO^TM script, the FLUIWELL-1C 15 ml reservoir. This possibility is especially interesting when working on cell perfusion
• Automation possibility through the MAESFLO^TM software (provided with the MFCS^TM) scripts and drivers
• No cross contamination possibility since none of the MFCS^TM part is in contact with the samples
• Pressure range flexibility to run complex experiments with always the highest stability and response time

 

You can find more information in the following publications for which the MFCS^TM have been used to manipulation various droplets:
^{1 Featured image} Design, modeling and characterization of microfluidic architectures for high flow rate, small footprint microfluidic systems, L. Saias, J. Autebert, L. Malaquin and J.-L. Viovy, Lab on a chip, Vol 11, 2011
Lab-on-Chip for fast 3D particle tracking in living cells, H. Hajjoul, S. Kocanova, I. Lassadi, K. Bystricky and A. Bancaud, Lab Chip, vol.9, 2009
Chromatographic behavior of single cells in a microchannel with dynamic geometry, T. Gerhardt, S. Woob and H. Ma, Lab Chip, vol.11, 2011
Microfluidic sorting and multimodal typing of cancer cells in self-assembled magnetic arrays, P. Vielh, L. Malaquin, J.-L. Viovy, PNAS U S A. 17/08/2010
Separation of parasites from human blood using deterministic lateral displacement, S. H. Holm, J. P. Beech, M. P. Barrett and J. O. Tegenfeldt, Lab Chip, vol.11, 2011
Macroscopic-scale carbon nanotube alignment via self-assembly in lyotropic liquid crystals, S. Schymura, E. Enz, S. Roth, G. Scalia, J.P.F. Lagerwall, Synthetic metals, vol.159, issues 21-22, 11/2009
Particle deposition from polydisperse suspensions in microfluidic devices, B. Mustin, B Stoeber, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol.9, issue 4-5, 2010
A role for Rho GTPases and cell–cell adhesion in single-cell motility in vivo, E. Kardash, M. Reichman-Fried, J.-L. Maître, B. Boldajipour, E. Papusheva, E.-M. Messerschmidt, C.-P. Heisenberg and E. Raz, Nature cell biology, Vol 12, number 1, 01/2010
Completion of the epithelial to mesenchymal transition in zebrafish mesoderm requires Spadetail, R. H. Row, J.-L. Maître, B. L. Martin, P. Stockinger, C.-P. Heisenberg, D. Kimelman, Developmental Biology, 354, 102–110, 2011
Monitoring induced gene expression of single cells in a multilayer microchip, C. Hanke, S. Waide, R. Kettler & P. S. Dittrich, Anal Bioanal Chem, 2012
Sensing DNA-coatings of microparticles using micropipettes, L. J. Steinbock; G. Stober; U. F Keyser, Biosensors & bioelectronics, vol.24, issue 8, 04/2009
Analysis of gene expression at the single-cell level using microdroplet-based microfluidic technology, P. Mary, L. Dauphinot, N. Bois, M.-C. Potier, V. Studer and P. Tabeling, Biomicrofluidics, n°5
Microfluidics and complex fluids, P. Nghe, E. Terriac, M. Schneider, Z. Z. Li, M. Cloitre, B. Abecassis and P. Tabeling, Lab Chip, vol.11, 2011
Modeling of colloidal transport in capillaries particles, G. Stober, L. Steinbock, U. F. Keyser, Journal of Applied Physics, n°105, issue 8, 04/2009

Other documents
Microfluidics-based cell manipulation and analysis, J. Wang, W. Liu, L. Li, Q. Tu, J. Wang, L. Ren, X. Wang and A. Liun, Biomimetics

 *Response time to target pressure is output volume dependent