Highly permeable silicon membranes for shear free chemotaxis and rapid cell labeling.

ABSTRACT: Microfluidic systems are powerful tools for cell biology studies because they enable the precise addition and removal of solutes in small volumes. However, the fluid forces inherent in the use of microfluidics for cell cultures are sometimes undesirable. An important example is chemotaxis systems where fluid flow creates well-defined and steady chemotactic gradients but also pushes cells downstream. Here we demonstrate a chemotaxis system in which two chambers are separated by a molecularly thin (15 nm), transparent, and nanoporous silicon membrane. One chamber is a microfluidic channel that carries a flow-generated gradient while the other chamber is a shear-free environment for cell observation. The molecularly thin membranes provide effectively no resistance to molecular diffusion betwe

SUBMITTER: Chung HH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4540053 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature