Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 9;13(1):3195. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30814-6.
New microfluidic systems for whole organism analysis and experimentation are catalyzing biological breakthroughs across many fields, from human health to fundamental biology principles. This perspective discusses recent microfluidic tools to study intact model organisms to demonstrate the tremendous potential for these integrated approaches now and into the future. We describe these microsystems' technical features and highlight the unique advantages for precise manipulation in areas including immobilization, automated alignment, sorting, sensory, mechanical and chemical stimulation, and genetic and thermal perturbation. Our aim is to familiarize technologically focused researchers with microfluidics applications in biology research, while providing biologists an entrée to advanced microengineering techniques for model organisms.
用于整体生物分析和实验的新型微流控系统正在推动许多领域的生物学突破，从人类健康到基础生物学原理。本观点讨论了最近用于研究完整模式生物的微流控工具，以展示这些综合方法现在和未来的巨大潜力。我们描述了这些微系统的技术特点，并强调了在固定、自动对准、分类、传感、机械和化学刺激以及遗传和热扰动等领域进行精确操作的独特优势。我们的目的是使专注于技术的研究人员熟悉生物学研究中的微流控应用，同时为生物学家提供进入用于模式生物的先进微工程技术的途径。
