Application of Microfluidics in Single-cell Manipulation, Omics and Drug Development

Title:Application of Microfluidics in Single-cell Manipulation, Omics and Drug Development

Volume: 28 Issue: 40

Author(s): Aynur Abdulla, Nokuzola Maboyi and Xianting Ding*

Affiliation:

• State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Institute for Personalized Medicine, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030,China

Keywords: Microfluidics, single-cell manipulation, single-cell omics, drug development, protein analysis, cell separation.

Abstract:

Background: Cell heterogeneity exists among different tissues, even in the same type of cells. Cell heterogeneity leads to a difference in cell size, functions, biological activity, and for cancer cells it causes different drug responses and resistance. Meanwhile, microfluidics is a promising tool for single-cell research to reveal cell heterogeneity.

Methods: Through literature research conducted over the past ten years on microfluidics, we summarize and introduce the application of microfluidics in single-cell separation and manipulation, featuring techniques, such as acoustic manipulation, optical manipulation, single-cell trapping, and patterning, as well as single-cell omics including singlecell genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, single-cell proteome, single-cell metabolome, and drug development.

Results: Microfluidics is a flexible, precise tool, and it is easy to integrate with different functions. Firstly, it can be used as an important tool to separate rare but important cells according to the cell`s biological or physical properties. Secondly, microfluidics can provide the possibility of single-cell omics. Thirdly, microfluidics can be used in drug development, specifically in drug delivery and drug combination. Meanwhile, droplet microfluidics has gradually become the most powerful tool to encapsulate single-cells with other reagents for DNA, RNA, or protein analysis.

Conclusion: Microfluidics is a robust platform technology that is able to accomplish rare cell separation, efficient single-cell omics analysis and provide a platform for drug development and drug delivery.

Cite this article as:

Abdulla Aynur , Maboyi Nokuzola and Ding Xianting *, Application of Microfluidics in Single-cell Manipulation, Omics and Drug Development, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2021; 28 (40) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867328666210203205641