On-Chip Microparticle Manipulation with Gel Microbead Controlled by Electromagnetic Force

We developed a novel technique to study individual cell properties on a chip using newly developed cell manipulation by the magnetically driven gel microtool. We used hydrophilic photo-crosslinkable resin for material of the gel microbead. The gel microbead is generated by salting-out which is caused by injecting the electrolyte solution to the resin. We can introduce magnetic beads into the gel microbead when generating the gel microbead. This gel microbead can fuse to other microbead when the gel microbeads are uncured. Moreover, this gel microbead can adhere to the cell physically without any treatment and the gel microbead is easily broken when contacting to a glass plate. Optical tweezers and magnetic force are used to manipulate the gel microbead. A mercury lamp is used to illuminate UV-ray for polymerization of the resin. By using this magnetically driven gel microbead, we succeeded in making functional gel microtool such as detachable cell binding microtool and manipulating a yeast cell by using magnetic force in the microchip