On-chip processing of particles and cells via multilaminar flow streams

Area of Science:

• Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip technologies
• Biotechnology and Cellular Analysis
• Particle and Droplet Manipulation

Background:

• Microfluidic workflows often require multi-step processing of particles, cells, and droplets.
• Traditional methods for these processes are typically laborious and time-consuming.
• Laminar flow in microchannels offers potential for enhanced speed and simplicity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review methods for performing multi-step procedures on particles, cells, and droplets using microfluidics.
• To highlight the benefits of exploiting laminar flow for simplified and accelerated microfluidic workflows.
• To categorize techniques based on manipulating flow streams or the objects themselves.

Main Methods:

• Exploiting the laminar nature of flow within microchannels.
• Manipulating flow streams around objects for localized perfusion (e.g., cells).
• Utilizing various forces to manipulate objects (particles, cells, droplets) within flow streams.

Main Results:

• Demonstration of 'multilaminar flow' procedures for efficient processing.
• Methods enable localized perfusion and controlled manipulation of micro-objects.
• Significant improvements in speed and simplicity for multi-step microfluidic tasks.

Conclusions:

• Multilaminar flow strategies offer a powerful approach to streamline microfluidic applications.
• These techniques are applicable to a wide range of tasks including reactions, analyses, labeling, and coating.
• The review provides a comprehensive overview of current methods for advanced microfluidic processing.