Design, Fabrication, and Application of a Microfluidic Device for Investigating Physical Stress-Induced Behavior in Yeast and Microalgae

Purpose: The development of an efficient in vitro cell culture device to process various cells would represent a major milestone in biological science and engineering. However, the current conventional macro-scale in vitro cell culture platforms are limited in their capacity for detailed analysis and determination of cellular behavior in complex environments. This paper describes a microfluidic-based culture device that allows accurate control of parameters of physical cues such as pressure. Methods: A microfluidic device, as a model microbioreactor, was designed and fabricated to culture Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under various conditions of physical pressure stimulus. This device was compatible with live-cell imaging and allowed quantitative analysis of physical cue-induced behavior in yeast and microalgae. Results: A simple microfluidic-based in vitro cell …