Label-free enrichment of functional cardiomyocytes using microfluidic deterministic lateral flow displacement.

Progress in cardiac cell replacement therapies and tissue engineering critically depends on our ability to isolate functional cardiomyocytes (CMs) from heterogeneous cell mixtures. Label-free enrichment of cardiomyocytes is desirable for future clinical application of cell based products. Taking advantage of the physical properties of CMs, a microfluidic system was designed to separate CMs from neonatal rat heart tissue digest based on size using the principles of deterministic lateral displacement (DLD).

Microfluidic pillar array sandwich immunofluorescence assay for ocular diagnostics.

Uveitis and primary intraocular lymphoma (PIOL) are diseases associated with the invasion of lymphocytes into various regions of the eye, accompanied by expression of inflammatory cytokines. While these diseases are very different in terms of survivability and treatment options they have similar symptoms that make accurate diagnosis challenging. Furthermore, the diagnostic yield with state-of-the-art techniques for cell and cytokine analysis of vitreous and aqueous humor samples is under 20% due to inadequate sensitivity.

Deterministic lateral displacement as a means to enrich large cells for tissue engineering.

The enrichment or isolation of selected cell types from heterogeneous suspensions is required in the area of tissue engineering. State of the art techniques utilized for this separation include preplating and sieve-based approaches that have limited ranges of purity and variable yield. Here, we present a deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) microfluidic device that is capable of separating large epithelial cells (17.

Microfluidic enrichment of a target cell type from a heterogenous suspension by adhesion-based negative selection.

The enrichment or isolation of a selected type of cells in a heterogeneous suspension is challenging when the surface markers of these cells are not completely known. Here, we present a 3-stage arrangement of peptide-coated microfluidic channels that can recover a small number of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) from a heterogenous suspension by negative selection depletion of the non-target cell types.

Effect of channel geometry on cell adhesion in microfluidic devices.

Microfluidic channels coated with ligands are a versatile platform for the separation or enrichment of cells from small sample volumes. This adhesion-based mode of separation is mediated by ligand-receptor bonds between the cells and channel surface and also by fluid shear stress. This paper demonstrates how aspects of microchannel geometry can play an additional role in controlling cell adhesion.