Acoustic single cell traps: Understanding the woods by examining the trees

该项目旨在定义利用声学力操纵微流控芯片中单个细胞背后的潜在物理原理。所研究的技术将为生物医学研究人员提供一种独特的能力：追踪单个细胞的反应。例如，众所周知，耐药性和潜伏期出现在小的细胞亚群中，因此，当在细胞群体水平上研究细胞时，会丢失关键信息。为了捕获单个细胞，激发的声波波长必须减小到细胞直径的数量级。通过分析细微细胞差异引起的不同反应，可以收集与感染途径和药物反应相关的信息。

This project aims to define the underlying physics behind the manipulation of individual cells in a microfluidic chip using acoustic forces. The technology investigated would offer biomedical researchers a unique capability: that of tracking individual cell responses. It is known for example that drug resistance and latency emerge from small sub-populations of cells, so crucial information is lost when cells are studied at a population level. To trap single cells, the acoustic wavelength excited must be reduced to the order of a cell diameter. By enabling the analysis of different responses due to subtle cell difference, information pertinent to infection pathways and drug response could be gathered.