Microfluidic Device Technologies for Digestion, Disaggregation, and Filtration of Tissue Samples for Single Cell Applications.

There is growing interest in breaking down tissues into the individual cellular constituents so that those cells can be identified, assayed for functional characteristics, or utilized for therapeutic purposes. A major driver is the development of single cell analysis methods, which are best poised to assess cellular heterogeneity and discover rare cells. Current tissue dissociation methods are inefficient, produce variable results, and require many labor-intensive, time-consuming steps. To address these shortcomings, we have developed three different microfluidic technologies to perform the critical steps of tissue digestion, disaggregation, and filtration with improved dissociation efficiency and speed. These devices will make it possible to process tissue into single cells for various downstream applications in a rapid and automated fashion.