title: Shrink-induced single-cell plastic microwell array.
abstract: The ability to interrogate and track single cells over time in a high-throughput format would provide critical information for fundamental biological understanding of processes and for various applications, including drug screening and toxicology. We have developed an ultrarapid and simple method to create single-cell wells of controllable diameter and depth with commodity shrink-wrap film and tape. Using a programmable CO(2) laser, we cut hole arrays into the tape. The tape then serves as a shadow mask to selectively etch wells into commodity shrink-wrap film by O(2) plasma. When the shrink-wrap film retracts upon briefly heating, high-aspect plastic microwell arrays with diameters down to 20 μm are readily achieved. We calibrated the loading procedure with fluorescent microbeads. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of the wells by loading fluorescently labeled single human embryonic stem cells into the wells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lew
authors.forename: Diep
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khine
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration / Q000592:standards; D002460:Cell Line; D002469:Cell Separation; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000592:standards; D008853:Microscopy; D008863:Microspheres; D019064:Product Packaging; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis