Biochemical Environment
Cells are constantly exposed to biochemical stimulation from the early embryonic stage to adult life. The spatiotemporal regulation of these signals is essential as it determines cell fate, phenotype, metabolic activity as well as pathological behaviors. The fast response and high stability of Fluigent instruments make them the best solution available on the market to reproduce these complex variations in vitro.
Picture: Stable biochemical gradient
Benefits of Fluigent instrument to reproduce biochemical environment
Temporal resolution: switches solutions rapidly (down to 20ms)
Spatial resolution: multiple flow focusing delivers gradients with one-cell diameter precision (cf ref Benedetto et al)
Stable in time: pulse free flow for up to 1 month
Programmable injection sequences: up to 10 distinct solutions
Sensitive and versatile: covers a large flow-rate range from nl/min to mL/min with a resolution of 1% of the measured value.
High throughput: perfuse up to 8 chips in parallel with specific medium and flow rate.
Migrating cells in dynamic chemical gradients generated by a microfluidic chamber (cells, gray; chemoattractant with fluorescein,green). Video courtesy of Pr Satoshi Sawai ( University of Tokyo, Japan)
Applications
Chemotaxis: study cell response to steady or dynamic chemical gradients
Spatial control of the biochemical environment: co-streaming or successive injection of different fluids at a specific location
Molecule characterization: identify the effect of a compound on biological process from molecular (cytoskeleton) to tissue scale
Drug screening: automate the injection time and sequence of compounds at given concentrations as well as periodic sampling at the system output
Hyperoxia/hypoxia: control oxygen conditions
Automated protocols: cell seeding, sequential injection, medium recirculation, immunostaining.
Surface coating
Immediate switching from actin to cofilin solution to study the depolymerization of actin filaments. (actin in red, cofilin in green). Video courtesy of Dr Hugo Wioland (Institut Jacques Monod, France)
Selected publication from our customers
- Wioland H et al, ADF/Cofilin accelerates actin dynamics by severing filaments and promoting their depolymerization at both ends. 2017. Curr Biol; 27(13):1956-1967.e7
- Tong et al, Crossed flow microfluidics for high throughput screening of bioactive chemical-cell interactions. 2017. Lab Chip;17(3):501-510.
- Nakajima A and Sawai S, Dissecting spatial and temporal sensing in Dictyostelium chemotaxis using a wave gradient generator. 2016.Methods Mol Biol; 1407:107-22.
- Nakajima A et al, The microfluidic lighthouse: an omnidirectional gradient generator. 2016. Lab Chip; 16(22):4382-4394
- Perez-Toralla K et al, FISH in chips: turning microfluidic fluorescence in situ hybridization into a quantitative and clinically reliable molecular diagnosis tool. 2015. Lab Chip; 15(3):811-22.
- Autebert J et al, High purity microfluidic sorting and analysis of circulating tumor cells: towards routine mutation detection. 2015. Lab Chip;15(9):2090-101.
- Schulze A et al, Dynamical feature extraction at the sensory periphery guides chemotaxis. 2015.Elife;4
- Benedetto A et al, Spatiotemporal control of gene expression using microfluidics. 2014. Lab Chip; 14(7):1336-47.
- Nakajima A et al, Rectified directional sensing in long-range cell migration. 2014. Nat Commun; 5:5367.
- Wilson K et al, Mechanisms of leading edge protrusion in interstitial migration. 2013.Nat Commun;4:2896.
- Startsev MA et al, Nanochannel pH gradient electrofocusing of proteins. 2013, Anal Chem.;85(15):7133-8
- Pernier J et al, Dimeric WH2 domains in Vibrio VopF promote actin filamenet barbed-end uncapping and assisted elongation. 2013, Nat Struct Mol Biol; 20(9): 1069-76
- Niman CS et al, Controlled microfluidic switching in arbitrary time-sequences with low drag. 2013, Lab Chip; 13(12):2389-96
- Niedermayer T et al, Intermittent deplolymerization of actin filaments is caused by photo-induced dimerization of actin protomers. 2012, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA;109(27):10769-74
- Jégou A et al, Individual actin filaments in a microfluidic flow reveal the mechanism of ATP hydrolysis and give insight into the properties of profilin. 2011, PLoS Biol;9(9): e1001161
- Saliba AE et al, Microfluidic sorting and multimodal typing of cancer cells in self-assembled magnetic arrays. 2010, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA; 107 (33):14524-9
- Bazargan V and Stoeber B, Moving temporary wall in microfluidic devices. 2008, Phys Rev Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys; 78(6 Pt 2): 066303
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