Optofluidic organization and transport of cell chain

Controllable organization and transport of cell chain in a fluid, which is of great importance in biological and medical fields, have attracted increasing attentions in recent years. Here we demonstrate an optofluidic strategy, by implanting the microfluidic technique with a large-tapered-angle fiber probe (LTAP), to organize and transport a cell chain in a noncontact and noninvasive manner. After a laser beam at 980-nm wavelength launched into LTAP, the E. coli cells were continuously trapped and then arranged into a cell chain one after another. The chain can be transported by adjusting the magnitudes of optical force and flow drag force. The proposed technique can also be applied for the eukaryotic cells (e.g., yeast cell) and human red blood cells (RBCs). Experiment results were interpreted by the numerical simulation, and the stiffness of cell chain was also discussed.