title: Manipulating biological agents and cells in micro-scale volumes for applications in medicine.
abstract: Recent technological advances provide new tools to manipulate cells and biological agents in micro/nano-liter volumes. With precise control over small volumes, the cell microenvironment and other biological agents can be bioengineered; interactions between cells and external stimuli can be monitored; and the fundamental mechanisms such as cancer metastasis and stem cell differentiation can be elucidated. Technological advances based on the principles of electrical, magnetic, chemical, optical, acoustic, and mechanical forces lead to novel applications in point-of-care diagnostics, regenerative medicine, in vitro drug testing, cryopreservation, and cell isolation/purification. In this review, we first focus on the underlying mechanisms of emerging examples for cell manipulation in small volumes targeting applications such as tissue engineering. Then, we illustrate how these mechanisms impact the aforementioned biomedical applications, discuss the associated challenges, and provide perspectives for further development.
authors.affiliation: Bio-Acoustic-MEMS in Medicine (BAMM) Laboratory, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Savas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tasoglu
authors.forename: Umut Atakan
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Gurkan
authors.forename: Shuqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Utkan
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Demirci
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057005:Bioengineering / Q000379:methods*; D062028:Bioprinting; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D050997:Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*