Microfluidic Platforms for Cell Culture and Investigations, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

A cell culture is the result of a collection of techniques for isolating cells from animals or plants and maintaining them in apparatus, instead of using them at their origin. The aim of the cell culture is to control the fluidic, physicochemical, nutritional, scaffold, and other biological requirements for their survival, proliferation, and desired differentiation. Recent advances in microtechnology and tissue engineering have extended the cell culture to a wider range of cell numbers and densities, from single cells to 3D co-cultures, and for a wider range of cell culture cycles, from quick disposable cultures to very-long-term cell cultures. Microfluidic technology has also enabled the integration of various cell culture techniques into a chip, i.e., towards the realization of miniaturized cell-processing systems.

This Special Issue aims to turn the spotlight on microsystems for advanced cell culture. Numerous microfluidic systems for various cell-based assays are already the subject of intensive research, including on-chip cellomics and organ-on-chip, as already covered in other Special Issues in Micromachines. This Special Issue rather focuses on the concepts, devices, and methods for enhanced cell culture, including but not limited to fluidic/temperature/gas level control methods, cell handling such as sorting and preservation, and monitoring of cell culture media, all of which constitute the fundamentals of on-chip cellular assays and processing. In addition, this Special Issue will cover simple and effective microfluidic methods that address physicochemical instability and/or high adoption, and the learning costs that inherently come from microtechnology-origin cell culture systems. Downsizing and improving the traditional cell culture techniques will also open new possibilities in portable and affordable cell processing and cell-based sensing systems that will greatly contribute to precision medicine and accurate environmental monitoring.

Prof. Dr. Nobuyuki Futai
Dr. Atsushi Takano
Guest Editors

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• long-term culture
• hypoxic/hyperoxic culture
• culture in gradients
• coculture/3D culture
• single-cell culture
• on-chip cell sorting/harvesting/passaging
• on-chip culture for environment monitoring
• cryopreservation