(427a) Microfluidic Cell Sorting and Microphysiological Circulation: From Liquid Biopsy to Vascularized Micro Tissue

Over the last 20 years, many microfluidic technologies have been developed for sample preparation at the cellular scale to enable on-chip flow cytometry, cell separation, cell enrichment, and single cell trapping/release. Examples of these microfluidic sorting technologies include dielectrophoresis (DEP), acoustophoresis, acoustic streaming, magnetophoresis, immunomagnetic, magnetohydrodynamic, and inertial microfluidics. The basic principle is to exert forces at controlled levels above the laminar flow-induced viscous hydrodynamic forces in order to separate the targeted cells of interest. Liquid biopsy has become a promising technology to isolate and target rare cells such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in body fluids thanks to many of these microfluidic cell sorting techniques. This advent of microfluidic liquid biopsy provides an in vitro snap shot into the patientâ??s physiological status via the in vivocirculation that enables one to monitor disease state and progression for diagnosis and prognosis.

Recently there has been a surge in the development of microphysiological systems and organ-on-a-chip for drug screening and regenerative medicine. Over the years, drug screening has mostly been carried out on 2D monolayers in microwell plates and the drugs screened are not delivered through blood vessels as they are for in vivo treatments. Through the advancement of microfluidics technologies, our team has enabled the automation of biological fluids delivery through physiological vasculature networks that mimic the physiological circulation of the human body. The critical bottleneck is to engineer the microenvironment for the formation of 3D tissues and organs and to also pump and perfuse the tissue vascular network for on-chip in vitro microcirculation. Microfluidics play an important role in both the above-mentioned in vivo liquid biopsy and in vitro physiological circulation platforms. These two technologies will go hand-in-hand to connect in vitro screening to in vivotreatment with tremendous potential towards the realization of personalized medicine.