A completely automated, microfluidic cell-culture chip

摘要

It's a postdoc's dream: running a hundred different cell-culture experiments at the same time, all with different media, without having to pipette a, drop. Oh, and not having to come to the lab to feed your cells during the weekend might be really nice, too. The dream becomes a reality in the November 15 issue of Analytical Chemistry (pp 8557-8563), because Stephen Quake, visiting professor Anne Leyrat, and postdoc Rafael Gomez-Sjoberg at Stanford University report a new microfluidic cell-culture system that allows researchers to program conditions in up to 96 individual culture chambers. The device automatically monitors cells and modifies their culture conditions over time.