A microfluidic chip for manipulating and pairing single particles and its application

Abstract

The invention discloses a microfluidic chip for accurately controlling and pairing single particles. The chip comprises a channel layer and a control layer. The channel layer comprises a plurality ofunits for capturing and transferring single particles, and each unit consists of a capture flow channel, a capture chamber, a capture gap, a transfer flow channel, a pairing chamber and a pairing gap.The control layer is positioned below the capture flow channel and a pairing flow channel, is vertical to the capture flow channel and the pairing flow channel, and is isolated by a diaphragm. The chip can efficiently and accurately control the capture and transfer of single particles, and can realize high-throughput and high-efficiency single-particle pairing after different rounds of single-particle capture and transfer, and the number and the type of the paired particles are controllable. The chip can be widely applied to single-cell isolation and culture, single-cell heterogeneity analysis, multi-cell co-culture, multi-cell interaction, potential mechanism disclosure and the like.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a microfluidic chip for manipulating and pairing single particles, which can be applied to the isolation and culture of single cells, the analysis of single cell heterogeneity, multi-cell co-cultivation, multi-cell interaction and the revealing of potential mechanisms, etc. Background technique [0002] Due to the advantages of miniaturization, integration, high throughput, and precise control of microfluidics, microfluidic technology has been more and more widely used in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering science. One of the important applications is to realize Precise manipulation and pairing of single particles. Taking a single cell as an example, a cell is the basic unit of the structure and function of an organism, and the function of a multicellular organism is inseparable from the interaction between single cells. Therefore, a comprehensive and accurate understanding of cells requires not only he...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Most of the existing microfluidic platforms are based on the co-cultivation of cell populations, which observe the population behavior of cells, and cannot understand the interaction mode between cells at the single-cell scale

Although there are also single-cell pairing platforms based on fluid mechanics, most of the current pairing platforms are based on two cells. For multi-cell pairing with a larger number and more types, there are problems of difficult or low efficiency in the isolation and pairing process.

For example, combining microfluidic technology with light field, magnetic field, sound field, electric field, etc., although multi-cell pairing can be achieved, the cell type lacks selectivity, and the operation is cumbersome and requires high equipment.

Others such as microwell arrays and droplet systems can achieve large-scale pairing and are compatible with cells of different sizes, but due to the Poisson distribution, it is difficult to achieve a specific number and specific type of multi-cell pairing

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