Collaborative Research: Experimental and numerical studies of droplet formation and cell encapsulation in micro-channels for high-throughput electrical measurements

本研究的目的是研究和推广微滴在细菌生长、哺乳动物细胞生长和PCR反应的包封和监测中的应用。方法是通过实验和数值来确定装置的设计、封装机制和液滴内的生物反应。这项研究预计将增加对基本机制的理解，并实现用于即时诊断和筛查应用的实用设备。所提出的工作的智力优点包括开发新的数值模拟细胞封装过程的技术，获得细胞在细胞介质或缓冲液的液滴中封装过程的基本见解，检查离子液体介质对细胞的影响，系统的实验和模拟方法来设计光学捕获设备，以及是否可以在这些液滴中询问单细胞反应。所提出的工作的更广泛的影响是，进一步了解微通道中细胞包封过程的机制，将直接指导在生化应用中使用液滴作为细胞和分子的反应容器。因此，提出的研究可以作为通用平台，允许使用电气手段实时监测生物活动，从而产生紧凑的设备。这些设备将用于在俄勒冈州立大学的科学展览会上向高中生展示微流体和生物分析的基础知识，并作为UIUC为期两周的暑期学校微流体模块的一部分。

The objective of the research is to investigate and promote the use of pico-liter scale droplets for encapsulation and monitoring of bacterial growth, mammalian cell growth, and PCR reactions. The approach is to ascertain both experimentally and numerically, the device design, mechanisms of encapsulation, and biological reactions inside the droplets. The research is expected to result in increased understanding of the fundamental mechanisms as well as realization of practical devices for point-of-care diagnostics and screening applications.The intellectual merits of the proposed work include the development of novel numerical techniques for simulation of the cell encapsulation process, obtaining fundamental insight into the process of cell encapsulation in the droplets of cell media or buffer, examining the effect of ionic liquid medium on the cells, a systematic experiment and simulation approach to design the devices for optical capture, and whether single cell reactions can be interrogated inside these droplets.The broader impact of the proposed work is that a further understanding of the mechanism of cell encapsulation process in micro-channels will directly guide the use of droplets as reaction vessels for cells and molecules in biochemical applications. Thus, the proposed study can serves as generic platform that allows the biological activities to be monitored in real time using electrical means resulting in compact devices. The devices would be used to demonstrate fundamentals of microfluidics and bioassays to high school students in science fairs at OSU and as part of a microfluidic module in a 2 week long summer school at UIUC.