At the Interface: Advanced Microfluidic Assays for Study of Cell Function

Abstract

Understanding basic biology and disease mechanisms, testing drug safety and efficacy, engineering tissues and cell-based biosensors all require methods to study and manipulate mammalian cell function. A convenient method that has been developed over the past century for these purposes is in vitro cell culture where cells are taken out of their normal physiological environment inside the body and kept alive in a dish. Although in vitro cell culture is powerful, there is increasing evidence that cellular responses in culture dishes do not necessarily reflect how cells may behave in vivo . This discrepancy is due, at least in part, to the fact that much of what happens in living organisms is affected by microscale patterns and heterogeneity which are not well controlled in traditional macroscopic culture systems. Cells, which are micron-sized, determine their behavior based on cues from their microenvironment. Cellular behaviors such as subcellular signaling, chemotaxis (directed migration towards a chemical), growth, differentiation, and death, for example, are determined by subcellular stimulation, microscale chemical gradients, and adhesive micro- & nanopatterns. Microfluidics and other microscale phenomena dominate at this level making microtechnology crucial to the understanding of the cellular basis of life.