Development of a Droplet-Based Microfluidics Platform Toward Single-cell Analysis

Abstract

Isolating and analyzing a single cell remains a challenging task in both biological and medical researches since the analysis at the single-cell level offers great potential in gaining a unique insight in cellular activity. The aim of this work is to develop a lab-on-chip device that consists in a fully integrated droplet-based microfluidics platform devoted to real-time and single-cell analysis and capable of performing a sequence of several steps such as single cell encapsulation, droplet characterization, droplet sorting, droplet trapping and the analysis of droplets of interest. Only the results of the first part of this project is presented in this paper, in which we present a simple and fast standard microelectronic technique to fabricate the microfluidic platform. In addition, we show the possibility to use the electrochemical impedance technique as an alternative to those based on optical methods to detect and characterize droplets flowing in a microfluidic channel.