Technical Details:
This invention is a microfluidic device made of a silicone elastomer (PDMS) that can be used for dose response, gradient detection, and chemostatic growth studies of most cell types, particularly non-adherent cells. The gradient is generated by the diffusion of molecules between two reservoirs of continuously replenished chemicals and nutrients. The gradient created is decoupled from the fluid flow, allowing for gradient studies on non adherent cells without the artificial attachment onto the substrate. Furthermore, this device overcomes the shear stress over all cell types typically related to direct flow over the cells. Additionally, this device provides the flexibility to perform high-throughput live-cell imaging of single cell responses not possible by other methods to study gradient response. Background Chemical gradients play an important role in mediating biological activity in vivo. Insight into the interplay between a chemical gradient treatment and the cellular response is used to help determine the cues that trigger specific cellular activates. Long-term gradient response studies are typically challenging to perform because the gradients do not remain stable over time. Furthermore, it is difficult to generate gradients of the desired shape instantaneously during the experiment.
Looking for Partners:
This device is suited for long-term, temperature controlled high throughput studies of thousands of single cell responses by performing live-cell microscopy and can be integrated with other micro fluidic elements to allow other specific uses.
