The establishment and maintenance of axonal patterning is crucial for neuronal function. To identify the molecular systems that operate locally to control axonal structure, it is important to manipulate molecular functions in restricted subcellular areas for a long period of time. Microfluidic devices can be powerful tools for such purposes. In this study, we demonstrate the application of a mi...

The fabrication and operation of a gradient-generating microfluidic device for studying cellular behavior is described. A microfluidic platform is an enabling experimental tool, because it can precisely manipulate fluid flows, enable high-throughput experiments, and generate stable soluble concentration gradients. Compared to conventional gradient generators, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)-based...

In this study, we report on a simple and versatile plug-n-play microfluidic system that is fabricated from flexible assembly of glass-based flow-control modules for flexibly manipulating flows for versatile emulsion generation. The microfluidic system consists of three basic functional units: a flow-control module, a positioning groove, and a connection fastener. The flow-control module that is...

We have demonstrated a microfluidic device that can not only achieve three-dimensional flow focusing but also confine particles to the center stream along the channel. The device has a sample channel of smaller height and two sheath flow channels of greater height, merged into the downstream main channel where 3D focusing effects occur. We have demonstrated that both beads and cells in our devi...

This paper reports a microfluidic device capable of generating oxygen gradients for cell culture using spatially confined chemical reactions with minimal chemical consumption. The microfluidic cell culture device is constructed by single-layer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channels, in which the cells can be easily observed by microscopes. The device can control the oxygen gradients ...

Microfluidic methods for cellular studies can significantly reduce costs due to reduced reagent and biological specimen requirements compared with many traditional culture techniques. However, current types of readouts are limited and this lack of suitable readouts for microfluidic cultures has significantly hindered the application of microfluidics for cell-based assays. The In-Cell Western (I...

Microfluidics is an established multidisciplinary research domain with widespread applications in the fields of medicine, biotechnology and engineering. Conventional production methods of microfluidic chips have been limited to planar structures, preventing the exploitation of truly three-dimensional architectures for applications such as multi-phase droplet preparation or wet-phase fibre spinn...

Microfluidic system is widely employed in the detection of environmental contaminants and biological specimens. One of the critical issues which limits the applications of microfluidic chips is the limit of detection of trace specimens. Liquid–liquid extraction is of great importance in the preprocessing in microfluidic devices. In this paper, we developed a real-time fluorescence detection mic...

This study reports the fabrication of a microfluidic microbial fuel cell (MFC) using nickel as a novel alternative for conventional electrodes and a non-phatogenic strain of Escherichia coli as the biocatalyst. The feasibility of a microfluidic MFC as an efficient power generator for production of bioelectricity from glucose and urea as organic substrates in human blood and urine for implantabl...

This technical note presents a fabrication method and applications of three-dimensional (3D) interconnected microporous poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic devices. Based on soft lithography, the microporous PDMS microfluidic devices were fabricated by molding a mixture of PDMS pre-polymer and sugar particles in a microstructured mold. After curing and demolding, the sugar particles were...