title: Cell chips as new tools for cell biology--results, perspectives and opportunities.
abstract: Cell culture technologies were initially developed as research tools for studying cell functions, but nowadays they are essential for the biotechnology industry, with rapidly expanding applications requiring more and more advancements with respect to traditional tools. Miniaturization and integration of sensors and microfluidic components with cell culture techniques open the way to the development of cellomics as a new field of research targeting innovative analytic platforms for high-throughput studies. This approach enables advanced cell studies under controllable conditions by providing inexpensive, easy-to-operate devices. Thanks to their numerous advantages cell-chips have become a hotspot in biosensors and bioelectronics fields and have been applied to very different fields. In this review exemplary applications will be discussed, for cell counting and detection, cytotoxicity assays, migration assays and stem cell studies.
authors.affiliation: CNR Istituto Nanoscienze - NNL and Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica "Ennio De Giorgi", Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy. elisabetta.primiceri@unisalento.it.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Primiceri
authors.forename: Maria Serena
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Chiriacò
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maruccio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D046208:Microchip Analytical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D018675:Toxicity Tests; D014159:Transducers