Injection and cutting methods of animal cells using a microfluidic chip

We have developed a novel technique for cutting animal cells for an automatic cloning system. Animal cells that have been chemically softened are aspirated into a narrow Teflon tube, which is then inserted into a microfluidic chip containing two orthogonal channels. One of the microchannels aspirates and fixes a cell, while the other cuts the cell with a high velocity fluid flow. The thickness of the aspiration channel is adjustable. Half the volume of the cell is aspirated into the narrow microchannel and high-speed flow is then generated to cut the cell in two. In this report, we describe the cutting and injection methods.