title: Practical, microfabrication-free device for single-cell isolation.
abstract: Microfabricated devices have great potential in cell-level studies, but are not easily accessible for the broad biology community. This paper introduces the Microscale Oil-Covered Cell Array (MOCCA) as a low-cost device for high throughput single-cell analysis that can be easily produced by researchers without microengineering knowledge. Instead of using microfabricated structures to capture cells, MOCCA isolates cells in discrete aqueous droplets that are separated by oil on patterned hydrophilic areas across a relatively more hydrophobic substrate. The number of randomly seeded Escherichia coli bacteria in each discrete droplet approaches single-cell levels. The cell distribution on MOCCA is well-fit with Poisson distribution. In this pioneer study, we created an array of 900-picoliter droplets. The total time needed to seed cells in approximately 3000 droplets was less than 10 minutes. Compared to traditional microfabrication techniques, MOCCA dramatically lowers the cost of microscale cell arrays, yet enhances the fabrication and operational efficiency for single-cell analysis.
authors.affiliation: Center for Ecogenomics, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America.
authors.forename: Liang-I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Shih-Hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Deirdre R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Meldrum
mesh_terms: D002477:Cells; D016012:Poisson Distribution
references.citation: Anal Chem. 2004 Nov 1;76(21):6282-6
references.pmid: 15516119
references.citation: J R Soc Interface. 2008 Oct 6;5 Suppl 2:S151-9
references.pmid: 18522927
references.citation: Lab Chip. 2008 Aug;8(8):1244-54
references.pmid: 18651063
references.citation: Langmuir. 2004 Apr 13;20(8):2999-3005
references.pmid: 15875819
references.citation: Nat Rev Microbiol. 2003 Nov;1(2):158-64
references.pmid: 15035045
references.citation: Lab Chip. 2007 May;7(5):641-3
references.pmid: 17476386
references.citation: IEEE Trans Autom Sci Eng. 2008 Jan 1;5(1):32-42
references.pmid: 21057593
references.citation: Anal Biochem. 1981 Jan 1;110(1):1-8
references.pmid: 7011090
references.citation: Lab Chip. 2009 Apr 7;9(7):867-9
references.pmid: 19294295
references.citation: Lab Chip. 2005 Dec;5(12):1380-6
references.pmid: 16286969
references.citation: Anal Chem. 2006 Jul 15;78(14):4925-30
references.pmid: 16841912
references.citation: Chem Commun (Camb). 2007 Mar 28;(12):1218-20
references.pmid: 17356761
references.citation: Biosens Bioelectron. 2004 Jun 15;19(11):1421-8
references.pmid: 15093213
references.citation: Lab Chip. 2008 Jul;8(7):1110-5
references.pmid: 18584086