Abstract

Microfluidic Tools for Research on Cells

Roland Zengerle, Professor, University of Freiburg

The single cell dispenser is able to deliver individual single cells encapsulated in free-flying picoliter droplets at a single cell efficiency of 96%. Dispensed droplet volume can be controlled in the range of 500 pl - 800 pl. Viability of printed HeLa cells and human primary fibroblasts was demonstrated by culturing cells for at least eight days. In the second part of the talk a microfluidic large-scale integration (mLSI) platform for the temporal and chemical control of cell cultures to study fast kinetics of protein phosphorylation is presented. For in situ protein analysis the chip integrates the Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA). It enables to investigate cell-signaling events with a time resolution of a few seconds within 128 individual addressable cell culture chambers.