In this work, a simple and versatile microfluidic cell density gradient generator was successfully developed for cytotoxicity of quantum dots (QDs) assay. The microfluidic cell density gradient generator is composed of eight parallel channels which are respectively surrounded by 1-8 microwells with optimized length and width. The cells fall into microwells by gravity and the cell densities are ...

Culturing cells at microscales allows control over microenvironmental cues, such as cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions; the potential to scale experiments; the use of small culture volumes; and the ability to integrate with microsystem technologies for on-chip experimentation. Microfluidic perfusion culture in particular allows controlled delivery and removal of soluble biochemical molecule...

Chemical gradients that run axially in a microfluidic channel often contain undesirable high-frequency concentration variations, or noise, that results from mechanical and thermal fluctuations in the system. In this paper, we describe a passive microfluidic component called an 'expansion channel' (EC), that removes high frequency noise through axial dispersion. We show that the behavior of the ...

This communication reports a new method to form multilevel features in a single layer of SU-8 photoresist to facilitate the generation of 3D microfluidic chips. The method utilizes the spatial dependence of diffracted light intensity to selectively overexpose masked regions of photoresist and requires only a UV light source and a single transparency mask. 3D structures are formed within microfl...

We developed the photo-crosslinkable hydrogel microfluidic co-culture device to study photothermal therapy and cancer cell migration. To culture MCF7 human breast carcinoma cells and metastatic U87MG human glioblastoma in the microfluidic device, we used 10 w/v% gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels as a semi-permeable physical barrier. We demonstrated the effect of gold nanorod on phototherma...

A novel integrated continuous-flow microfluidic system was designed and fabricated for solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) using conventional reactants. The microfluidic system was composed of a glass-based radial reaction chip, a diffluent chip, amino acid feeding reservoirs and continuous-flow reagent pathways. A tri-row cofferdam-fence structure was designed for solid phase supports trappin...

ion Layers for Scalable Microfluidic Biocomputers William Thies, John Paul Urbanski, Todd Thorsen, and Saman Amarasinghe 1 Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 2 Hatsopoulos Microfluids Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology {thies, urbanski, thorsen, saman}@mit.edu Abstract. Microfluidic devices are emerging as an attractive technology for automatically orchestrati...

Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field with practical applications to the design of systems, called lab-on-chip (LoC), where tiny volumes of fluids are circulated through channels with millimeter size and driven into structures where precise chemical/physical processes take place. One subcategory of microfluidics is droplet-based microfluidics, in which discrete volumes of fluids disperse i...

A DNA extraction system was designed and fabricated using an AOM (aluminum oxide membrane) with 200 nm pores and PDMS microfluidic channels. The membrane was patterned using soft lithography techniques and SU-8 photolithography on the membrane. After making the pattern with SU-8, the AOM was observed using an SEM (scanning electro microscope) to verify the AOM structure was not damaged. From th...

The microfluidic sperm-sorting (MFSS) device is a promising advancement for assisted reproductive technology. Previously, poly(dimethylsiloxiane) and quartz MFSS devices were developed and used for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. However, these disposable devices were not clinically suitable for assisted reproduction, so a cyclo-olefin polymer MFSS (COP-MFSS) device was developed. By micromac...