Nanotech News

November 14, 2005

Microfluidics Cell Device May Speed Drug Discovery Efforts

Some of the research-enabling tools that nanotechnology will provide the cancer field are microfluidics devices that will enable investigators to screen large numbers of potential anticancer drug for specific biological effects in multiple types of tumor cells. Such systems, known as high-throughput assays, can significantly increase the odds of finding new therapeutics or targeting molecules that will attack specific types of cancers while bypassing healthy cells.

Robert Langer, Ph.D. and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School have successfully designed one such device and demonstrated how this microfluidics chip can capture a wide range of cells within tiny reservoirs that can be flooded with various drug-containing solutions. The investigators believe that their ability to position specific cell types within defined reservoirs should improve drug screening efforts. This work appears in the journal Lab on a Chip.

The investigators designed their device to minimize the shearing forces that damage cells as they flow through microfluidics channels. First, they fabricated an array of microwells on a piece of plastic known to support cell adhesion and growth. They then positioned a special mold on top of the array, one that contained microfluidics channels that would deliver one type of cell to each microwell.

Once the cells were in place, the mold was removed and replaced by a second mold containing a different set of microfluidics channels, along with valves, pumps and other components that can deliver nutrients and potential drugs to each microwell. The investigators believe that it should be possible to create a device capable of housing 2,500 microwells on a one square centimeter chip.

This work is detailed in a paper titled, “Cell docking inside microwells within reversibly sealed microfluidic channels for fabricating multiphenotype cell arrays.” Investigators from the Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA, and Tohoku University in Japan, also participated in this study. This work was published online in advance of print publication. An abstract is available at the journal’s website.
View abstract.