Themed collection Lab on a Chip Emerging Investigators

Novel microfluidic technique for functional selection of biosurfactant-producing microorganisms. Single bacterial cells are encapsulated into picoliter droplets for clonal cultivation and passively sorted at high throughput by interfacial tension.

A new microfluidic platform – the AMF-SporeChip – enables immobilisation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spores and confrontation of asymbiotic hyphae with physical obstacles, allowing the identification of various exploration strategies.

Here, we have developed a 3D printed microfluidic device capable of oxygen gradient formation within intestinal tissue slices ex vivo. The device is open-welled and compatible with external electrochemical recording during tissue analysis.

The use of 3D sharp-edged microstructures enhances the versatility of sharp-edge driven microstreaming, with control over the magnitude and orientation of streaming vortexes for targeted particle microfluidic manipulation.

Mechanosensitive proteins play a crucial role in a range of physiological processes, including hearing and regulating blood flow. This work presents a novel microfluidic approach compatible with 96-well plates to quantify their mechanosensitivity.

A cascaded elasto-inertial cell separation device for pretreatment-free, high-recovery-ratio, and high-purity separation of malignant tumor cells from clinical malignant pleural and peritoneal effusions.

Here, we report a fluorescent electrospun nanofiber membrane for integration with microfluidic chips towards lung-on-a-chip applications complemented with computational fluid dynamics modelling. Created with https://BioRender.com.

High-aspect ratio micropillar arrays are fabricated to enhance the detection performance of FRET-CRISPR assay.

A droplet array SlipChip is presented to compartmentalize fluid into partitions at high density with a simple “Load-Slip” operation, and to perform digital LAMP quantification of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids with a random access system.

This organ-on-a-chip device of the outer blood retinal barrier will allow future studies of complex disease mechanisms and treatments of visual disorders using clinically relevant endpoints in vitro.

We present a platform for on-chip molecular barcoding that combines high-resolution imaging with genomic analysis, enabling multi-modal phenotypic measurements in single cells.

We have developed a novel workflow (sdDE-FACS, ingle roplet ouble mulsion FACS) that allows robust production, screening, and sorting of single double emulsion droplets with complete nucleic acid recovery.

A new type of pharmacokinetic compartment model using artificial cell membranes that predicts intestinal absorption three times more accurately than the current state of the art.

To uncover the heterogeneity of cellular populations and multicellular constructs we show on-demand isolation of single mammalian cells and 3D cell cultures by coupling bright-field microdroplet imaging with real-time classification and sorting using convolutional neural networks.

In this paper, we present an N-shaped electrode-based microfluidic impedance cytometry for the measurement of the lateral position of single cells and particles in continuous flows.

This handheld sample-to-answer platform combines blood cell separation, viral lysis, and isothermal nucleic acid amplification with capillary fluidics and heating controls to automatically detect HIV from blood samples within 90 minutes.

Magnetically anchored microboats that can reliably and rapidly create air–liquid interface culture conditions in substrate-stiffness tunable epithelial cell cultures.

A highly specific and automated device is desired for selective manipulation of single cells. The device in this work picks cells based on their inherent properties using dielectrophoresis and automatically transfers those at a transfer site.

Organ-on-chips made of blood: personalized medicine with microfluidics.

The diamagnetic repulsion of polymer microspheres in a microfluidic platform enables the discrimination of magnetic susceptibility of subtle paramagnetic solutions.

The LEGO® concept is used to build 3D microchannel networks as a 3D μ-electrotransfection system for efficient exchange of nutrition and waste allowing 3D cell growth, while sustaining uniform 3D electric fields during cellular transfection.

A novel integrated inertial-impedance cytometer for rapid and label-free electrical profiling of neutrophil extracellular trap formation (NETosis).

Measuring neurotransmitters in the brain of living animals is a challenging task, especially when detailed information at high temporal resolution is required.

We propose a microfluidic cell-based drug screening platform to investigate combinatory antibiotic effects by automatically generating concentration combinations.

Microfluidic diffusional sizing is combined with synchrotron radiation circular dichroism to resolve the secondary structure of protein mixtures.

Droplet-based single cell platform allows functional screening and sorting of desirable TCR T cells to accelerate development of adoptive T cell therapies.

A biomimetic ‘adipose-tissue-on-chip’ integrated with nanoplasmonic biosensors for in situ multiplexed cytokine secretion analysis of obese adipose tissue.

We report a new technique that combines all aqueous droplet microfluidics with diamagnetic manipulation to isolate single-cell encapsulating water-in-water droplets.

Microfluidic gradient generators are used to study the movement of living cells, lipid vesicles, and colloidal particles in response to spatial variations in their local chemical environment.

Recapitulation of liver-immune interactions in a microfluidic compartmentalized coculture array is sufficient to accurately predict systemic drug-induced skin sensitization.

Click-A+Chip identifies azido modified proteins with a novel graphene linker that performs copper-free-click chemistry on the chip's surface.

Aging produces a number of changes in the neuronal structure and function throughout a variety of organisms.

A two-component, two-phase microfluidic device provides a movable port for user-selectable local stimulation of living tissue slices.

A novel lung airway-on-a-chip system that uses a suspended hydrogel to enable epithelial–matrix–smooth muscle cell interactions.

Endothelial barrier function is known to be regulated by a number of molecular mechanisms; however, the role of biomechanical signals associated with blood flow is comparatively less explored.

A novel portable device combining an aptamer probe and a nanofluidic component was developed, enabling the buffer-free continuous monitoring of small molecules in biological fluids.

We developed an open microfluidic hydrogel-patterning technology that creates networks of cell culture chambers in well plates for multiculture experiments.

An automated microfluidic platform enables systematic high-throughput studies of mixing enhancement on the emission band-gap of in-flow synthesized perovskite quantum dots, resulting in kinetically tunable nanocrystals.

Movement response of zebrafish to chemicals is of interest in screening studies. We introduce a microfluidic device for partial immobilization, head L-arginine exposure and movement screening of zebrafish larvae under controlled conditions.

Single-micron PDMS devices provide insight into the biophysical effects that vascular matrices have on platelets, RBCs, and neutrophils.

Light-based 3D printing of alginate hydrogels using ionic crosslinking enables reversible patterning with controlled degradation.

A new feedback and biological analysis system for digital microfluidics that uses an imaging based setup.

A size-based ferrohydrodynamic cell separation (FCS) device capable of enriching intact circulating tumor cells with high throughput and high recovery rate.