Abstract

Development of Microfluidic Platforms Enabling Single-Cell Electrical Phenotyping

Jian Chen, Associate Professor, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Size-independent intrinsic electrical properties of single cells (i.e., specific membrane capacitance (Cspecific membrane) and cytoplasm conductivity (scytoplasm)) are promising biophysical markers for cell status evaluation and cell type classification. In this talk, I will present our recent work on developing microfluidic platforms capable of quantifying Cspecific membrane and scytoplasm in a continuous manner, enabling data collection of hundreds of single cells. From the perspective of technology development, I will present four-generation microfluidic platforms for cellular electrical property quantification and highlight the proposed equivalent circuit models for raw electrical data translation. As to applications, electrical properties of 1) single cells with and without fixation and/or surface staining, 2) single cells with single membrane or cytosolic proteins under regulation were characterized and compared, locating correlations between cellular electrical properties and biochemical markers. As a demonstration of tumor cell classification, electrical properties of 1) paired high- and low-metastatic carcinoma strains and 2) mouse tumor samples were characterized and classified. The microfluidic platforms developed in this study show promise in cell type classification, which may function as effective tools in further applications.