Hybridoma: On-chip Cell Fusion Lab in a Tube Lab on a Chip

Antibodies have been used for many different applications ranging from basic biological studies to therapeutics. For example, antibodies are used in treatments as wide ranging as cancer care, autoimmune disease therapy, and to prevent rejection of transplanted organs. This requires large quantities of antibodies, which can be supplied via hybridoma generation. Hybridomas are hybrid cell lines formed via electrofusion from B-cells that produce a specific antibody, and immortalized B-cell cancer cells (myelomas). The fused cells can then be triggered to express large quantities of the required antibodies. The yield of fused cells as well as the yield of functional hybridomas is very low in standard bench-scale techniques. To address this challenge van den Berg and colleagues developed a microscale device that helped them significantly increase the number of active hybridomas. The poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) device engineered by Kemna et al. incorporated an array of 800 cell traps, placed between two Pt electrodes (Fig. 1). The traps were designed to hold a 7.5 mm large human B-cell and a 15 mm large mouse myeloma cell each. The