Microfluidic modulus for convenient cell culture and screening experiments

We report on a microfluidic set-up for convenient biological experiments involving cell culture. The strategy is to use a patterned microfluidic cover plate, which can be reversibly bonded to a cell culture substrate, to achieve both long-term cell culture in parallel chambers and control of culture parameters in each chamber. The design is furthermore optimized to enable intrinsic flow rate control. Preliminary results indicate that this novel cells-on-chips concept may lead to the development of microfluidic screening experiments and bio-analysis based on more conventional and high performance observations. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.