Microfluidic channel geometry and fluid velocity investigation for single cell hydrodynamic trapping

Abstract

Microfluidic technology has been applied widely for separating and trapping various type of cells. This technology has open ways to study and understand the biological systems, the mechanism of diseases, developing the therapeutic drugs, strategy to cure diseases and also in developing the biomarker for early disease diagnosis. Hydrodynamic cell trapping offers a great opportunity to direct, position, and trap particles or cells in small volume liquids, a crucial requirement for efficient single cell analysis. The challenges in hydrodynamic trapping are the need for control precisely the microfluidic multiple streams and a precise geometry design required to allow successful trapping. To address this limitation, the single cell hydrodynamic trapping finite element simulation was developed to determine the efficiency of single cell traps of variable geometries. A series of simulation studies were performed to analyze the effect of the trap hole size, channel’s height and fluid’s flow profiles to the appropriate for efficient single cell trapping. From the simulation, increasing the trap hole size has resulted in a gradually decreased of the fluid velocity in the trap channel. Furthermore, the fluid velocity in trap channel was found increasing with the increment of the HChannel. Single cell trapping channel with the HHole of 4 μm and HChannel of 15 μm produced the highest velocity in the trap channel compared to other geometry tests. This finite element model could be utilised as a guideline for designing and developing a chip to reduce the costly and time-consuming trial- and-error fabrication process.