Optofluidic integrated cell sorter fabricated by femtosecond lasers

Abstract

The main trend in optofluidics is currently towards full integration of the devices, thus improving automation, compactness and portability. In this respect femtosecond laser microfabrication is a very powerful technology given its capability of producing both optical waveguides and microfluidic channels. The current challenge in biology is the possibility to perform bioassays at the single cell level to unravel the hidden complexity in nominally homogeneous populations. Here we report on a new device implementing a fully integrated fluorescence-activated cell sorter. This non-invasive device is specifically designed to operate with a limited amount of cells but with a very high selectivity in the sorting process. Characterization of the device with beads and validation with human cells are presented.