Hydrodynamic lift for single cell manipulation in a femtosecond laser fabricated optofluidic chip

Abstract

Single cell sorting based either on fluorescence or on mechanical properties has been exploited in the last years in microfluidic devices. Hydrodynamic focusing allows increasing the efficiency of theses devices by improving the matching between the region of optical analysis and that of cell flow. Here we present a very simple solution fabricated by femtosecond laser micromachining that exploits flow laminarity in microfluidic channels to easily lift the sample flowing position to the channel portion illuminated by the optical waveguides used for single cell trapping and analysis.

Current Trends of Microfluidic Single-Cell Technologies

“…Bragheri and Osellame [ 63 ] introduced a chip to enable single cell manipulation by varying pressures from two sources: an input sample containing the cell suspension, and a buffer sample ( Figure 6 ). The ratio of the pressures of input flowing from these two sources is the major factor determining the level of the buffer layer in the common channel.…”