title: Versatile, fully automated, microfluidic cell culture system.
abstract: There is increasing demand for automated and quantitative cell culture technology, driven both by the intense activity in stem cell biology and by the emergence of systems biology. We built a fully automated cell culture screening system based on a microfluidic chip that creates arbitrary culture media formulations in 96 independent culture chambers and maintains cell viability for weeks. Individual culture conditions are customized in terms of cell seeding density, composition of culture medium, and feeding schedule, and each chamber is imaged with time-lapse microscopy. Using this device, we perform the first quantitative measurements of the influence of transient stimulation schedules on the proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, and motility of human primary mesenchymal stem cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gómez-Sjöberg
authors.forename: Anne A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Leyrat
authors.forename: Dana M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Pirone
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Stephen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Quake
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*