Microfluidic Chip for Single Cell Pairing
AssigneeNortheastern University
InventorsYantao FAN, Tania KONRY
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Abstract
A microfluidic system for high throughput characterization of interactions between pairs of cells is provided. A first cell is loaded into a capture chamber and transferred to a culture chamber, and then a second cell is captured and transferred to the same culture chamber, forming a pair of interacting or non-interacting but colocalized cells. The pair of cells can then be incubated, monitored by microscopy, and perfused with modulatory factors while interaction between the cells is investigated. The cells can be lysed, and whole cell lysates can be collected for genomic or proteomic analysis.
Claims25
A microfluidic device for capture and pairing of two or more single cells, the device comprising:
- a cell suspension inlet and a cell suspension outlet;
- a first microfluidic channel fluidically connected at a first end to the inlet and at a second end to the outlet;
- a working zone comprising a plurality of working units, each working unit comprising:
- a portion of said first microfluidic channel;
- a capture chamber fluidically connected to the first channel and a first pressure port;
- a culture chamber fluidically connected to the first channel and a second pressure port;
- wherein the first channel provides a continuous fluid pathway from the cell suspension inlet through each working unit in sequence and then to the cell suspension outlet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.