Ramesh Ramji, Ang Chee Xiang, Ng Jia Ying, Lim Chwee Teck and Chen Chia Hung
One of the essential issues in cell biology is to analyze intracellular proteins that play an important role in signal transduction and processes. Standard assays for intracellular proteins are based on ensemble measurements which rule out the differences of intracellular protein expression in individual cells. Especially in cancer biology, only a few tumour cells turn into circulating tumour cells causing metastasis. In such cases, understanding the heterogeneity in cellular physiology would be necessary. To screen for intracellular protein expression among individual cells effectively, a reliable method to lyse individual cells in a high throughput manner is essential. Here, we demonstrate an integrated microfluidic platform combining a cell focusing channel, reagent injection inlet and a droplet generator for high throughput single cell lysis. Individual cells are encapsulated into the droplets with chemical reagents which result in disrupting the cell membrane integrity, causing cell lysis. High throughput mammalian cell lysis was performed thus facilitating intracellular protein analysis on a micro device
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