Using living radical polymerization to enable facile incorporation of materials in microfluidic cell culture devices.

High throughput screening tools are expediting cell culture studies with applications in drug discovery and tissue engineering. This contribution demonstrates a method to incorporate 3D cell culture sites into microfluidic devices and enables the fabrication of high throughput screening tools with uniquely addressable culture environments. Contact lithographic photopolymerization (CLiPP) was used to fabricate microfluidic devices with two types of 3D culture sites: macroporous rigid polymer cell scaffolds and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) encapsulated cell matrices.

In situ fabrication of macroporous polymer networks within microfluidic devices by living radical photopolymerization and leaching.

Novel fabrication techniques and polymer systems are being explored to enable mass production of low cost microfluidic devices. In this contribution we discuss a new fabrication scheme for making microfluidic devices containing porous polymer components in situ. Contact lithography, a living radical photopolymer (LRPP) system and salt leaching were used to fabricate multilayer microfluidic devices rapidly with various channel geometries and covalently attached porous polymer plugs made of various photopolymerizable substrates.