Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, NCSR, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin, 9, Ireland.
Lab Chip. 2011 Aug 21;11(16):2701-10. doi: 10.1039/c1lc20105k. Epub 2011 Jun 28.
Just as the Petri dish has been invaluable to the evolution of biomedical science in the last 100 years, microfluidic cell assay platforms have the potential to change significantly the way modern biology and clinical science are performed. However, an evolutionary process of creating an efficient microfluidic array for many different bioassays is necessary. Specifically for a complete view of a cell response it is essential to incorporate cytotoxic, protein and gene analysis on a single system. Here we present a novel cellular and molecular analysis platform, which allows access to gene expression, protein immunoassay, and cytotoxicity information in parallel. It is realized by an integrated microfluidic array plate (iMAP). The iMAP enables sample processing of cells, perfusion based cell culture, effective perturbation of biologic molecules or drugs, and simultaneous, real-time optical analysis for different bioassays. The key features of the iMAP design are the interface of on-board gravity driven flow, the open access input fluid exchange and the highly efficient sedimentation based cell capture mechanism (∼100% capture rates). The operation of the device is straightforward (tube and pump free) and capable of handling dilute samples (5-cells per experiment), low reagent volumes (50 nL per reaction), and performing single cell protein and gene expression measurements. We believe that the unique low cell number and triple analysis capabilities of the iMAP platform can enable novel dynamic studies of scarce cells.
就像过去 100 年来培养皿对生物医学科学的发展非常重要一样，微流控细胞分析平台也有可能极大地改变现代生物学和临床科学的开展方式。然而，创造一个用于多种不同生物测定的高效微流控阵列需要一个进化的过程。具体来说，要全面了解细胞反应，就必须在单个系统中整合细胞毒性、蛋白质和基因分析。在这里，我们提出了一种新颖的细胞和分子分析平台，能够并行获取基因表达、蛋白质免疫分析和细胞毒性信息。这是通过集成微流控阵列板（iMAP）实现的。iMAP 能够对细胞进行样品处理、基于灌注的细胞培养、有效干扰生物分子或药物，以及同时进行不同生物测定的实时光学分析。iMAP 设计的关键特点是板载重力驱动流的接口、开放式的流体交换输入和高效的基于沉降的细胞捕获机制（捕获率约为 100%）。该设备的操作非常简单（无需管和泵），能够处理稀释的样品（每个实验 5 个细胞）、低试剂体积（每个反应 50nL），并进行单细胞蛋白质和基因表达测量。我们相信，iMAP 平台独特的低细胞数量和三重分析能力可以实现对稀有细胞的新型动态研究。
