title: Microfluidic tools for quantitative studies of eukaryotic chemotaxis.
abstract: Over the past decade, microfluidic techniques have been established as a versatile platform to perform live cell experiments under well-controlled conditions. To investigate the directional responses of cells, stable concentration profiles of chemotactic factors can be generated in microfluidic gradient mixers that provide a high degree of spatial control. However, the times for built-up and switching of gradient profiles are in general too slow to resolve the intracellular protein translocation events of directional sensing of eukaryotes. Here, we review an example of a conventional microfluidic gradient mixer as well as the novel flow photolysis technique that achieves an increased temporal resolution by combining the photo-activation of caged compounds with the advantages of microfluidic chambers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany. beta@uni-potsdam.de
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beta
authors.forename: Eberhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bodenschatz
mesh_terms: D002630:Chemotactic Factors / Q000528:radiation effects; D002633:Chemotaxis; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010782:Photolysis; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D002630:Chemotactic Factors