Purdue Research Foundation

Chun-Li Chang

Cagri Abdullah Savran

Philip Stewart Low

Wanfeng Huang

Rohil Jain

Andrew D Ellington

Babak Ziaie

David H Thompson

Zhenwen Ding

Venkata Naga Lakshmi Rekha Patchigolla

Ghanashyam S Acharya

Derek Doorneweerd

Walter A Henne

David Brownholland

Onur Gur

Cagri A Savran

The application relates to methods and systems for culturing individually selected cells in relative isolation from the rest of a population of cells, under physiologically relevant and controllable environmental conditions that can be designed to mimic specific environments, e.g., within a human body.

Deterministic culturing of single cells

A microfluidic detection system for micrometer-sized entities, such as biological cells, includes a detector component incorporating a plate with a plurality of opening, the plate separating two chambers, one in communication with a fluid source containing target cells bound to magnetic beads. The openings are sized to always permit passage of the magnetic beads therethrough into a lower one of the chambers and are further sized to always prevent passage of the target cells from the upper one of the chambers. The detector component further includes a magnet positioned to pull unbound magnetic beads through the openings and to capture target cells bound to magnetic beads on the surface of the plate. The microfluidic detection system includes a pump flowing the fluid through the detector component at high flow rates of milliliters per minute for high throughput detection of target cells.

Micro-fluidic system using micro-apertures for high throughput detection of cells

Microfluidic systems and methods are described for capturing magnetic target entities bound to one or more magnetic beads. The systems include a well array device that includes a substrate with a surface that has a plurality of wells arranged in one or more arrays on the surface. A first array of wells is arranged adjacent to a first location on the surface. A second and subsequent arrays, if present, are arranged sequentially on the surface at second and subsequent locations. When a liquid sample is added onto the substrate and caused to flow, the liquid sample will flow across the first array first and then flow across the second and subsequent arrays in sequential order. The wells in the first array each have a size that permits entry of only one target entity into the well and each well in the first array has approximately the same size.

High-throughput particle capture and analysis

A microfluidic detection system for micrometer-sized entities, such as biological cells, includes a detector component incorporating a plate with a plurality of opening, the plate separating two chambers, one in communication with a fluid source containing target entities bound to magnetic beads. The openings are sized to always permit passage of the magnetic beads therethrough into a lower one of the chambers and are further sized to always prevent passage of the target entities from the upper one of the chambers. The detector component further includes a magnet positioned to pull unbound magnetic beads through the openings and to capture target entities bound to magnetic beads on the surface of the plate. In a further feature, the microfluidic detection system is configured to pass target molecules through the plate to be bound to a functionalized surface of the lower chamber.

Systems and methods for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of target biomolecules in a sample are presented. The detection of biomolecules is achieved through a synergistic use of immunoseparation and diffractometry, and the formation of antibody-biomolecule-ligand sandwich complexes that form diffraction gratings. Characteristic diffraction patterns are then produced upon illumination of the diffraction gratings with light. The diffraction patterns can be used to detect very low amounts of biomolecules present in the sample.

Ultrasensitive detection of biomolecules using immunoseparation and diffractometry

A reflective diffractometric hydrogel sensor includes an upper layer, including a microfluidic chamber formed from a substantially transparent material and configured to contain a solution, a reflective diffraction grating positioned within the microfluidic chamber, the diffraction grating including a plurality of hydrogel strips configured to change in dimension in response to a stimulus, each hydrogel strip having a top surface coated with a reflective material and a bottom surface in contact with the upper layer substrate, and a reflective surface below the reflective diffraction grating wherein when a coherent light is incident upon and reflected from the upper layer at an angle substantially normal to the upper layer an interference diffraction pattern results, including a first diffraction mode, a light intensity of which indicates the relative distance between the top surfaces of the plurality of hydrogel strips and the reflective surface.

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West Lafayette, IN, United States of America

Chun-Li Chang