An Automated Lab-On-A-Chip Approach for Pollen Tube Growth Manipulation in a Controlled Chemical Environment

Laboratory automation is successfully implemented across a wide range of applications, from space exploration to oceanic research, facilitating data collection and analysis while improving precision in biological and medical fields. The future of robotic laboratory automation is closely tied to advancements in miniaturization. Thus, automation of lab-on-a-chip (LoC) systems-integrating complex laboratory tasks onto a small chip-holds great potential for scientific research, including the study of model organisms and cells. Here, an automated continuous-flow-based LoC device designed to investigate and manipulate the growth of pollen tubes (PTs)-fastest-growing cells in nature-within controlled chemical environments is presented. The automated LoC approach allows for the generation of tailored chemical gradients (e.g., of Ca²⁺) around the PT tip, offering unprecedented precision and efficiency in the manipulation of PT growth when compared to manual experiments. Besides advancing the experimental methodology by providing more precise information on the response of PTs to Ca²⁺ concentration gradients, the developed closed-loop approach with simultaneous data recording and processing reduces the time and costs associated with experiments. This underscores the great potential of robotic laboratory automation for streamlining data collection and analysis, paving the way for more efficient and precise scientific research.