Automated Microfluidic System for Suspension Cell Culture Using Lab-on-Chip Devices

Microfluidic systems, known as the miniaturization of the laboratory, allow the development of experiments on a minimal scale and the automatization of the process, minimizing experiment and personnel costs and maximizing reproducibility. These systems work with Lab-on-Chip (LOC) devices, which allow the constant renewal of fresh medium making long-term experiments feasible. Despite this, working with suspension cells is complicated as they do not attach to surfaces. Therefore, this project implements a suspension cell culture in LOC devices using a pressure-driven flow-controlled microfluidic system. Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and Jurkat cells (T-cell line) were used as a representative of suspension cells. Two different LOC devices were tested and then the microfluidic system was validated by comparing the expansion of cells and the action of poly-L-lysine and etoposide with a 96-well plate. The system proved to be not only as useful but more robust than the conventional 96-well plate. As almost all the assays can be automated, human intervention was reduced, decreasing the reproducibility issues. Likewise, as it is possible to image the whole well using an automated microscope, the results obtained using the microfluidic system are more reliable. The results obtained from these experiments can be potentially applied to optimize the expansion and activation of CAR T cells, allowing the reduction of the cost of this new promising treatment.