A microfluidic cell array with individually addressable culture chambers

Microfluidic arrays of living cells have raised a lot of interests recently due to their potential for high throughput screening of cell-based assays. This report presents a microfluidic cell array with individually addressable chambers controlled by pneumatic valves for cell culture and treatment. There are two modes for the cell array to be operated. In the first mode, different groups of cells are directed into designated chambers for culturing and observation. We demonstrate the delivery and culture of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expressing and nonfluorescent Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells into specific chambers in the array. In the second mode, the chambers are first seeded with the same cell type and different reagents are delivered to specific chambers for cell treatment. We treat cells in designated chambers with Calcein AM and CellTrace calcein red-orange AM to demonstrate the principle. We envision that this microfluidic cell array technology will pave the way to automated high-throughput screening of biomolecules and drugs based on observing cellular phenotypes and responses. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.