No abstract

Cell fusion has been used for many different purposes, including generation of hybridomas and reprogramming of somatic cells. The fusion step represents the key event in initiation of these procedures. Standard fusion techniques, however, provide poor and random cell contact, leading to low yields. We present here a microfluidic device to trap and properly pair thousands of cells. Using this device we were able to pair different cell types, including fibroblasts, mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), and myeloma cells, achieving pairing efficiencies up to 70%. The device is compatible with both chemical and electrical fusion protocols. We observed that electrical fusion was more efficient than chemical fusion, with membrane reorganization efficiencies of up to 89%. We achieved greater than 50% properly paired and fused cells over the entire device, 5× greater than a commercial electrofusion chamber, and were able to observe reprogramming in hybrids between mESCs and mouse embryonic fibroblasts.

The Mars Organic Analyzer (MOA), a microfabricated capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrument for sensitive amino acid biomarker analysis, has been developed and evaluated. The microdevice consists of a four-wafer sandwich combining glass CE separation channels, microfabricated pneumatic membrane valves and pumps, and a nanoliter fluidic network. The portable MOA instrument integrates high voltage CE power supplies, pneumatic controls, and fluorescence detection optics necessary for field operation. The amino acid concentration sensitivities range from micromolar to 0.1 nM, corresponding to part-per-trillion sensitivity. The MOA was first used in the lab to analyze soil extracts from the Atacama Desert, Chile, detecting amino acids ranging from 10 -600 parts per billion. Field tests of the MOA in the Panoche Valley, CA, successfully detected amino acids at 70 parts per trillion to 100 parts per billion in jarosite, a sulfate-rich mineral associated with liquid water that was recently detected on Mars. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using the MOA to perform sensitive in situ amino acid biomarker analysis on soil samples representative of a Mars-like environment.amino acid analysis ͉ astrobiology ͉ capillary electrophoresis ͉ microfabrication E xtraterrestrial life on Mars or elsewhere most likely requires three fundamental elements: liquid water, organic molecules capable of forming combinatorial polymers, and a redox energy source (1). The Mars Global Surveyor imaged features attributed to aqueous seeps (2), and the Mars Exploration Rovers recently detected mineralogical signs of liquid water (3). Opportunity observed rocks with layering patterns that could have been formed by water, the Mössbauer spectrometer detected significant concentrations of jarosite, an iron-sulfate mineral that is only formed in the presence of liquid water, and the alphaparticle x-ray spectrometer detected abundant sulfates (3). These observations point to the existence of a liquid habitat on Mars that could have supported life.Attempts have already been made to detect organic molecules on Mars. The Viking landers carried pyrolysis gas chromatograph͞mass spectrometers (GCMS) that did not detect significant organic molecules (4). This result does not preclude the presence of organic molecules on Mars because of the difficulty of detecting low levels of organics in situ in a highly oxidizing environment (1, 5). It has been suggested that the Viking pyrolysis GCMS would not have detected even high concentrations of the remnants of organisms in soil because of the low volatility of organic oxidation products (5); similar difficulties were encountered when duplicating the Viking experiments in an arid terrestrial environment (6). In addition, water and CO 2 interfere with the detection of likely organic pyrolysis products, resulting in an elevated detection limit of Ϸ10 ppm (7). Improved instrumentation must be developed that is capable of sensitive detection and analysis of key biomarkers from Mars-like soils.Microfabricated m...

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are shed from cancerous tumors, enter the circulatory system, and migrate to distant organs to form metastases that ultimately lead to the death of most patients with cancer. Identification and characterization of CTCs provides a means to study, monitor, and potentially interfere with the metastatic process. Isolation of CTCs from blood is challenging because CTCs are rare and possess characteristics that reflect the heterogeneity of cancers. Various methods have been developed to enrich CTCs from many millions of normal blood cells. Microfluidics offers an opportunity to create a next generation of superior CTC enrichment devices. This review focuses on various microfluidic approaches that have been applied to date to capture CTCs from the blood of patients with cancer.

Strong evidence for evaporitic sulfate minerals such as gypsum and jarosite has recently been found on Mars. Although organic molecules are often codeposited with terrestrial evaporitic minerals, there have been no systematic investigations of organic components in sulfate minerals. We report here the detection of organic material, including amino acids and their amine degradation products, in ancient terrestrial sulfate minerals. Amino acids and amines appear to be preserved for geologically long periods in sulfate mineral matrices. This suggests that sulfate minerals should be prime targets in the search for organic compounds, including those of biological origin, on Mars.

No abstract

We present a novel, fully integrated microfluidic bubble trap and debubbler. The 2-layer structure, based on a PDMS valve design, utilizes a featured membrane to stop bubble progression through the device. A pneumatic chamber directly above the trap is evacuated, and the bubble is pulled out through the gas-permeable PDMS membrane. Normal device operation, including continuous flow at atmospheric pressure, is maintained during the entire trapping and debubbling process. We present a range of trap sizes, from 2 to 10 mm diameter, and can trap and remove bubbles up to 25 microL in under 3 h.

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) PIN photodiodes have been developed and characterized as fluorescence detectors for microfluidic analysis devices. A discrete a-Si:H photodiode is first fabricated on a glass substrate and used to detect fluorescent dye standards using conventional confocal microscopy. In this format, the limit of detection for fluorescein flowing in a 50-microm deep channel is 680 pM (S/N = 3). A hybrid integrated detection system consisting of a half-ball lens, a ZnS/YF3 multilayer optical interference filter with a pinhole, and an annular a-Si:H photodiode is also developed that allows the laser excitation to pass up through the central aperture in the detector. Using this integrated detection device, the limit of detection for fluorescein is 17 nM, and DNA fragment sizing and chiral analysis of glutamic acid are successfully performed. The a-Si:H detector exhibits high sensitivity at the emission wavelengths of commonly used fluorescent dyes and is readily microfabricated and integrated at low cost making it ideal for portable microfluidic bioanalyzers and emerging large scale integrated microfluidic technologies.