Recent Development of Cell Analysis on Microfludics

Abstract

Cells are basic structural and functional units of living organisms. Understanding the composition, structure and function of cells, and exploring cellular activities, are quite important for the cognition of phenomena and rules of life. Microfluidics, combined with advanced molecular, imaging and bioinformatics techniques, constitute a robust 'toolbox' and revolutionize the way for cell biology researches. In microfluidic systems, small amounts of fluids are manipulated using precisely designed channels with dimensions at micrometer level. Various chemical and biological processes can be transferred and integrated in a small single device, achieving multiple chemical and biological functions. Microfluidic technology displays a number of unique merits over conventional approaches, and has been extensively applied to various fields of cell research. In this chapter, we will review the recent developments and outstanding achievements of microfluidic technology in cell researches. Based on the cell study procedure, the main content is divided into four parts: cell culture, cell manipulation, cell stimulation and cell analysis. This review will also discuss the challenges and directions of microfluidic-based cell analysis, providing important references and ideas for the development of biological and medical researches and applications.