Physical modulation based cell manipulation in microfluidic devices

Cell manipulation has important applications in biological research and clinical diagnostics. We integrate microfabrication with physical modulation to enable selective and flexible cell manipulation, such as isolation, trapping and recovery of cells. We use the strong temperature dependence of affinity binding between aptamers and cells to enable specific cell capture and temperature-mediated release of selected cells. We also exploit the large compliance of elastomers to create an array of cell-trapping microstructures, whose dimensions can be mechanically modulated to capture a predetermined number of cells. Thus, enhanced utility and flexibility for practical applications can be attained, as demonstrated by specific capture and temperature-mediated release of CCRF-CEM cells, as well as tunable trapping of MCF-7 cells.