Authors: Daniel T Chiu
Publish Date: 2006/07/28
Volume: 387, Issue: 1, Pages: 17-20
Abstract
The ability to tailor the size of microfluidic systems to match the length scale of single biological cells has led to a plethora of new microfluidic techniques geared towards the manipulation culturing and analysis of single cells 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Examples include the use of laminar flows for the rapid exchange of the solution environment around single cells 2 and the targeting of small molecules to localized regions of single cells 3 By miniaturizing the channels to cellular or subcellular dimensions 4 5 single cells can be trapped in defined regions of the fluidic system for subsequent detailed studies Miniaturized devices for the highthroughput manipulation and detection of streams of single cells have also been demonstrated and include such widely used methods as flow cytometry and cell sorting 6 By combining electrical or optical methods with microfluidics such as laser trapping 7 11 single cells and particles can be
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