Case Study: Microfluidic cell culturing

Cell culturing is an important tool in pharmaceutical development, cosmetics and food & beverage while also being a highly sensitive process. Besides chemical and biological parameters, i.e. pH value, temperature, feed concentration etc., the physilogical parameters and therefore the fluidic parameters play an important role in mimicking real body behaviour. The combination of biotechnology and microfluidics is a game changer in these fields. While biotechnology is the base for these research fields, microfluidics offers an added value by getting closer to the body’s physiological environment.

Standard procedures for culturing cells, especially in high throughput applications, are based on static principles. Cells usually sense fluid dynamics, such as flow speed and shear stress. Active microfluidics can still offer high throughput options due to its micro footprint. Additionally, it allows for dynamic perfusion as expected in the human body. Also, it is possible to mimick the blood flow and therefore a dynamic exchange of nutrients and waste products.

The objective of this case study is to share the variety of setup possibilities utilizing components by Bartels Mikrotechnik and its partners. These components are implemented into the read-to-start Cell Culture kit. Additionally, the case study discusses results of a cell transporting experiment pumping cells through the piezo actuated micropump determining the viability before and after the pumping process.

You can read the full case study here: Perfusion systems for microfluidic cell culturing

Also, check out our videos about:

• Incubator-ready microfluidic systems for cell culturing
• Cell culturing in a micro bioreactor using our Regulation Software Add-on