Microfluidic in vitro model to study cell mechanisms and drug efficacy

Abstract

Microfluidics is a platform that is being widely used for developing in-vitro models to study various in-vivo phenomena. Our aim was to develop a simple, easy to use microfluidic device, which can be used for different cell-based applications. By performing cell patterning on-a-chip we were able to develop a microfluidic in-vitro model that could be used to perform cell-cell interaction studies and cell-substrate interaction studies. The same chip was also extended to test drugs on human cells where the efficacy of a photosensitizer to perform targeted cancer cell imaging and targeted photodynamic therapy was tested. The advantage of such a system is in the fact that they can be used to perform different types of cell studies apart from facilitating drug testing and hypothesis testing.