Magnetic beads based microdam structure for on-chip cell docking

Cell docking is a very important technique in on-chip cell-based research. In previous studies, different kinds of microdam structures have been used for cell docking. However, they brought extra flowing resistance and induced the jam of microfluidic channel. Furthermore, they were too complex for fabricating. Thus, they could not be widely used. In this study, a large number of magnetic beads were patterned within microchannel to form microscale dam structure, which could be used for cell docking and cell-based research. This magnetic beads based dam structure could be fabricated on packaged chips. It could also be constructed or removed by turning on or turning off extrinsic magnetic fields. This cell-docking method is of significant advantage than previous methods, and it may become an important tool in future cell lab-on-a-chip research.