title: A microfluidic system for studying ageing and dynamic single-cell responses in budding yeast.
abstract: Recognition of the importance of cell-to-cell variability in cellular decision-making and a growing interest in stochastic modeling of cellular processes has led to an increased demand for high density, reproducible, single-cell measurements in time-varying surroundings. We present ALCATRAS (A Long-term Culturing And TRApping System), a microfluidic device that can quantitatively monitor up to 1000 cells of budding yeast in a well-defined and controlled environment. Daughter cells are removed by fluid flow to avoid crowding allowing experiments to run for over 60 hours, and the extracellular media may be changed repeatedly and in seconds. We illustrate use of the device by measuring ageing through replicative life span curves, following the dynamics of the cell cycle, and examining history-dependent behaviour in the general stress response.
authors.affiliation: SynthSys - Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Crane
authors.affiliation: SynthSys - Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ivan B N
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: SynthSys - Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Elco
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bakker
authors.affiliation: Scottish Microelectronics Center, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stewart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: SynthSys - Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Swain
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division; D007267:Injections; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004718:Saccharomycetales / Q000166:cytology*; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors