Soft-state biomicrofluidic pulse generator for single cell analysis

We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of a soft-state biomicrofluidic pulse generator for single cell analysis. Hydrodynamic cell trapping via lateral microfluidic junctions allows the trapping of single cells from a bulk suspension. Microfluidic injection sites adjacent to the cell-trapping channels enable the pulsed delivery of nanoliter volumes of biochemical reagent. We demonstrated the application and removal of reagent at a frequency of 10 Hz with a rise time of less than 33 ms and a reagent consumption rate of 0.2 nL/s. It is shown that this system operates as a low-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of 7 Hz.