Microfluidic Research Applications

Microfluidics offers innovative ways of studying cellular behaviors. Its ability to control flow in a precise manner offers new ways of studying cell interactions with drugs, other cells or bacteria in single-cell conditions, as well as cell response to a mechanical stress or even efficient sorting of cells from complex cellular populations using fluorescence-based or biomechanics-based methods.

Organ-on-a-chip is the practice of reproducing organ-level function — healthy or diseased — using human cells cultured inside a microfluidic chip under controlled perfusion. Microfluidic organ culture gives researchers what a well plate cannot: precise, dynamic control of the cellular microenvironment. 

These microfluidic devices present cells with the mechanical and biochemical signals they meet in the body, and let those signals be varied deliberately. That is the premise of the technology — a dynamic in-vitro system rather than a static one, and one whose conditions are recorded rather than assumed. 

This page maps the applications of organ on a chip: what the technology is used for, which organ models are furthest developed, and what each demands of the fluid handling underneath. Every model below links to published Fluigent work — an application note, a paper highlight or a customer case study. 

One theme recurs. Chip design absorbs most of the attention when a project starts, and deserves it, but the chip only defines the geometry of the channels fluid moves through. What cells experience is set by the systems driving that fluid: the shear applied, the speed of response to a change, and the stability held across weeks of culture. 

One of the best-known research topics in microfluidics with a diverse range of applications is the generation of highly-monodisperse droplets. Through the use of channel geometry, immiscible fluid properties, and precise flow control, single or double droplets with diameters from 10 to a few hundred micrometers can be produced at high throughput rates (up to 10kHz). In the last decade, monodisperse droplet production has drawn considerable interest in the scientific community, with a variety of applications in single-cell analysis, drug delivery, sequencing, and other fields of research. 

Cell biology is at the heart of medical science. Researchers seek to understand how cells organize to form human tissue, how they communicate with each other, how they respond to infections or other pathologies, and how we can help them to fight such pathologies with drugs or other treatments. Microfluidics brings applications of this research to a higher level with reduced costs, faster experiments, enhanced detection thresholds, and strong multiplexing potential.