"Lab on Chip" Device System with a Magnetic Clamp for Sealing Microfluidic Chips Against Wet Surfaces
Reliably and instantaneously seals the microfluidic devices.Causes negligible deformation to the microchannels.The assembly and disassembly of setup is easy and takes a very short time.Cells adhered to the cover glass stay intact and can be fixed, stained, and examined under a microscope. No vacuum needed.Superior to mechanical clamping.Consistent and reproducible coating of the glass substrates.
The device can be used with a variety of microfluidic chips with adherent and/or non-adherent cells on the substrates to provide an advanced and versatile “lab on a chip” platform for research and clinical experiments, including shear stress response, chemotaxis, motility, and real-time microscopy.
UC San Diego inventors have developed an innovative “lab on chip” device and system to instantaneously and reversibly seal microfluidic chips (e.g. PDMS chip) against wet substrates (e.g. cover glasses) coated with cell cultures. It contains three parts, a magnetic clamp, a specially designed microfluidic chip, and a coating method to produce well-defined boundaries on substrates with controlled site densities of different molecules. The magnetic clamp exerts a reproducible and uniform pressure on the microfluidic chip, achieving fast and reliable sealing with minimal mechanical perturbation to cells on the substrate. Figure 1. Magnetic clamp setup: (a) photograph of assembled setup, view from the top; (b) photograph of the cover (viewed from the bottom) separated from the base; (c) close-up view of the central part of the cover with silicone cushion and PDMS chip; (d) schematic drawing of cross- section of assembled clamp setup.
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State Of Development A fully functional prototype has been designed and extensively tested. Related Materials Tech ID/UC Case 20928/2009-273-0 Related Cases 2009-273-0
USA
