Microfluidic stickers for cell- and tissue-based assays in microchannels

Abstract

Difficulties in culturing cells inside microchannels is a major obstacle for the wide use of microfluidic technology in cell biology. Here, we present a simple and versatile method to interface closed microchannels with cellular and multicellular systems. Our approach, based on microfluidic stickers which can adhere to wet glass coverslips, eliminates the need to adapt cell culture conditions to microchannels and greatly facilitates the methods required to position cells into microcircuits. We demonstrate the simplicity and efficiency of the method with HeLa cells, primary cultured neurons and Drosophila tissues.