Femtoliter-Droplet Mass Spectrometry Interface Utilizing Nanofluidics for Ultrasmall and High-Sensitivity Analysis.

In the fields of biology and medicine, comprehensive protein analysis at the single-cell level utilizing mass spectrometry (MS) with pL sample volumes and zmol to amol sensitivity is required. Our group has developed nanofluidic analytical pretreatment methods that exploit nanochannels for downsizing chemical unit operations to fL-pL volumes. In the field of analytical instruments, mass spectrometers have advanced to achieve ultrahigh sensitivity.

Advanced Top-Down Fabrication for a Fused Silica Nanofluidic Device.

Nanofluidics have recently attracted significant attention with regard to the development of new functionalities and applications, and producing new functional devices utilizing nanofluidics will require the fabrication of nanochannels. Fused silica nanofluidic devices fabricated by top-down methods are a promising approach to realizing this goal. Our group previously demonstrated the analysis of a living single cell using such a device, incorporating nanochannels having different sizes (10-10 nm) and with branched and confluent structures and surface patterning.

Simplified fluid-structure coupled analysis of particle movement for designing of microfluidic cell sorter.

Recently, methods of the separation and selection of cells using a microfluidic device are receiving a lot of attention as the latest technology and those devices are called microfluidic cell sorter. Those methods have many advantages compared to conventional methods. There are a lot of researches on the microfluidic cell sorting but there isn't the automated design method of this device in spite of the necessary.