An acoustofluidic platform for non-contact trapping of cell-laden hydrogel droplets compatible with optical microscopy

Fornell, AnnaUppsala University,Uppsala universitet,Mikrosystemteknik,Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab,Embla (författare)

Production of cell-laden hydrogel droplets as miniaturized niches for 3D cell culture provides a new route for cell-based assays. Such production can be enabled by droplet microfluidics and here we present a droplet trapping system based on bulk acoustic waves for handling hydrogel droplets in a continuous flow format. The droplet trapping system consists of a glass capillary equipped with a small piezoelectric transducer. By applying ultrasound (4 MHz), a localized acoustic standing wave field is generated in the capillary, trapping the droplets in a well-defined cluster above the transducer area. The results show that the droplet cluster can be retained at flow rates of up to 76 mu l/min, corresponding to an average flow speed of 3.2 mm/s. The system allows for important operations such as continuous perfusion and/or addition of chemical reagents to the encapsulated cells with in situ optical access. This feature is demonstrated by performing on-chip staining of the cell nuclei. The key advantages of this trapping method are that it is label-free and gentle and thus well-suited for biological applications. Moreover, the droplets can easily be released on-demand, which facilitates downstream analysis. It is envisioned that the presented droplet trapping system will be a valuable tool for a wide range of multistep assays as well as long-term monitoring of cells encapsulated in gel-based droplets.

Johannesson, CarlLund University,Lunds universitet,Avdelningen för Biomedicinsk teknik,Institutionen för biomedicinsk teknik,Institutioner vid LTH,Lunds Tekniska Högskola,Department of Biomedical Engineering,Departments at LTH,Faculty of Engineering, LTH(Swepub:lu)bme-caj (författare)
Searle, Sean S.,1991-Uppsala University,Uppsala universitet,Mikrosystemteknik,Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab,Natl Univ Singapore, Dept Biomed Engn, Fac Engn,,Embla,National University of Singapore(Swepub:uu)sease980 (författare)
Happstadius, AxelLund University (författare)
Nilsson, JohanLund University,Lunds universitet,Avdelningen för Biomedicinsk teknik,Institutionen för biomedicinsk teknik,Institutioner vid LTH,Lunds Tekniska Högskola,Department of Biomedical Engineering,Departments at LTH,Faculty of Engineering, LTH(Swepub:lu)elma-jni (författare)
Tenje, MariaUppsala University,Uppsala universitet,Mikrosystemteknik,Science for Life Laboratory, SciLifeLab,Embla(Swepub:lu)ftf-mit (författare)
Uppsala universitetMikrosystemteknik (creator_code:org_t)

Av författaren/redakt...: Fornell, Anna; Johannesson, Car ...; Searle, Sean S., ...; Happstadius, Axe ...; Nilsson, Johan; Tenje, Maria

Om ämnet

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MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP: MEDICIN OCH HÄLS ...; och Medicinsk biotek ...; och Annan medicinsk ...

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