Precision Microfluidic Contol for Nanobiotechnology

描述(由申请人提供)：已经开发出能够精确地区分和引导细胞和胶体颗粒两者的自动微流控芯片顶流图像细胞仪和细胞分选器。该方法依赖于层流微流体流保持的自然分离和应用领域，特别是光学操纵技术在这些流之间平移细胞和颗粒的能力。这些微设备有可能比目前可用的任何其他技术更快地执行芯片顶端微生物学并且使用更少的相关硬件和准备时间。此外，光学驱动方法允许与广泛应用的荧光标记和检测方案无缝集成采用这种技术的单芯片顶层设备将能够精确地处理单个细胞和微球，并有望在纳米尺度上对分子生物学做出相当大的贡献，因此，在未来几十年，分子治疗学的具体目标包括 1)通过使用光学捕捉器精确定位通道中的颗粒和细胞，并允许层流将它们引导到适当的出口通道，扩展了现有的细胞仪配置以适应多种分选命运 2)基于荧光的检测的集成，用于快速区分细胞表型、结合事件和颗粒结合化合物 3)通过优化检测方案，增加同时捕获的数量，以及通过在同一芯片上并行多个设备来提高分选率 4)实现能够处理细胞、执行多个基于珠粒的分析以及快速恢复和解释这些测试结果的工作原型

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An automated microfluidic chip-top flow image cytometer and cell sorter has been developed that is capable of precisely distinguishing and directing both cells and colloidal particles This approach relies on the natural separation maintained by laminar microfluidic streams and the ability of applied fields, specifically optical manipulation techniques, to translate cells and particles between these streams These microdevices have the potential to perform chip-top microbiology more rapidly and with less associated hardware and preparation time than any other techniques currently available Furthermore, the optical actuation approach allows for seamless integration with widely applied fluorescence labeling and detection schemes Single chip-top devices that employ this technology will be capable precisely handling individual cells and microspheres and will be poised to make a considerable contribution to molecular biology on the nanoscale, and therefore molecular therapeutics in the coming decades The specific aims of this proposal include 1) The expansion of the existing cytometry configuration to accommodate multiple sorting fates by using an optical trap to precisely position particles and cells in channels and allowing laminar flows to direct them to the proper outlet channel 2) The integration of fluorescence based detection for rapid discrimination among cell phenotypes, binding events and particle-bound compounds 3) The increase of sorting rates through optimization of detection schemes, an increase in the number of simultaneous traps, and through parallelization of multiple devices upon the same chip 4) The realization of a working prototype capable of handling cells, performing multiple bead-based analyses and rapidly recovering and interpreting the results of these tests