Microfabrication of micropore array for cell separation and cell assay

Abstract

Micropore arrays have attracted a substantial amount of attention due to their strong capability to separate specific cell types, such as rare tumor cells, from a heterogeneous sample and to perform cell assays on a single cell level. Micropore array filtration has been widely used in rare cell type separation because of its potential for a high sample throughput, which is a key parameter for practical clinical applications. However, most of the present micropore arrays suffer from a low throughput, resulting from a low porosity. Therefore, a robust microfabrication process for high-porosity micropore arrays is urgently demanded. This study investigated four microfabrication processes for micropore array preparation in parallel. The results revealed that the Parylene-C molding technique with a silicon micropillar array as the template is the optimized strategy for the robust preparation of a large-area and high-porosity micropore array, along with a high size controllability. The Parylene-C molding technique is compatible with the traditional micromechanical system (MEMS) process and ready for scale-up manufacture. The prepared Parylene-C micropore array is promising for various applications, such as rare tumor cell separation and cell assays in liquid biopsy for cancer precision medicine.