Microfluidic Platforms for Human Disease Cell Mechanics Studies

Abstract

Microfluidics is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of chemistry, engineering, and biology; and has experienced rapid growth over the past decades due to advantages associated with miniaturization, integration and faster sample processing and analysis time (Gervais et al., 2011; Hou et al., 2011; Bhagat et al., 2010). Recently, several microfluidic platforms have been developed for the study of human disease cell biomechanics at the cellular and molecular levels so as to gain better insights into various human diseases such as cancer (Bhagat et al., 2010), pneumonia (Kim et al., 2009b), sepsis (Mach and Di Carlo, 2010) and malaria (Hou et al., 2010). In this section, we will elaborate on recent advances in cellular biomechanics using microfluidic approaches. In particular, we will look at various techniques in probing cellular mechanical properties with some novel applications in cancer and malaria such as the identification and enrichments of these diseased cells from their normal counter parts. We will also provide insights into the challenges associated with current microfluidic approaches and provide future perspectives for the next-generation platforms.