A Microfluidic System for One‐Chip Harvesting of Single‐Cell‐Laden Hydrogels in Culture Medium

Abstract

Single‐cell analysis has shown great potential to fully quantify the distribution of cellular behaviors among a population of individuals. Through isolation and preservation of single cells in the aqueous phase, droplet encapsulation followed by gelation enables high‐throughput analysis in biocompatible microgels. However, the lack of control over the number of cells encapsulated and complicated gelation processes significantly limit its efficiency. Here, a microfluidic system for one‐chip harvesting of single‐cell‐laden microgels is presented. Through ultraviolet irradiation, an on‐chip gelation technique is seamlessly combined with droplet generation to realize high‐throughput fabrication of microscale hydrogels in microfluidic channel. Moreover, a sorting module is introduced to simultaneously complete cell‐laden microgel selection and transfer into culture medium. To demonstrate the efficiency of this method, two types of single cells are respectively encapsulated and collected, showing desirable single‐cell encapsulation and cell viability. This technique realizes integrated droplet gelation, microgel sorting, and transfer into culture medium, allowing high‐throughput analysis of single cells and comprehensive understanding of the cellular specificity.