Droplet-Based Microfluidic Technology For Cell Analysis

The mainstream of microfluidic chip research has transformed from the platform construction and method development to a wide range of applications. As a typical multiphase micro-functional unit, the droplet can be used as an independent microreactor with a volume ranging from pL to nL and formation rate up to thousands of droplets per second. It has the advantages of restricted diffusion, accelerated mixing, high heat transfer, effective mass transfer and so on. Droplet-based microfluidic technology has been emerged as a powerful tool to carry out high throughput screening and droplet manipulation research. Thus cell analysis, especially single cell analysis, and cell manipulation in droplets are easy and effective to be implemented with the assistance of a series of analytical methods. In this Chapter, we have briefly introduced an overview of droplet generation and corresponding principle by microfluidic chip. Besides, some usual methods coupled with droplet analysis have also been presented such as fluorescence analysis, mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis and others. Then we have mainly discussed the progress of droplets in cell analysis of recent decades. Finally, a summary and possible predication of droplet-based microfluidic chip are made at the end of this chapter.