A TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED ON-CHIP HIGH-THROUGHPUT SINGLE-CELL CULTURE PLATFORM

Abstract

Modern lab-on-a-chip and microfluidic technologies offer opportunities in developing portable cell culture platforms for growing and analyzing the behavior of living cells. We have proposed the magnetomicrofluidic chips, as a novel single-cell analysis tool, composed of microfluidic microchambers and microchannels overlaid on magnetic thin films designed to precisely transport magnetized single cells and magnetic particles with the help of hybrid hydrodynamic and magnetic forces. In order to provide the optimal temperature for the cells to grow on the chip, here we propose an on-chip microincubator at the single-cell level, without the need for a conventional incubator. An electronic circuit is used to read the chip temperature and control it with a feedback system. We perform finite element methods analysis to study the chip temperature profile, based on which the final chip is designed. We show that experimental results agree well with the simulation results. Using the proposed chip and the on-chip incubator, we transport thousands of single cells into the microchambers, culture them, and demonstrate their proper proliferation. The introduced chip can be used in crucial applications, such as drug screening, in which long-term study of the cells under a microscope, at the single-cell level, is required.