Tumor-on-a-chip

The microcavity is designed to trap the bubble with desired shape at the entrance of the sub-microchannel. Under the acoustic actuation, the trapped bubble oscillates and creates second radiation force to trap and rotate CTCs at a desired location. By controlling the acoustic bubble, CTCs can be continuously trapped from the blood flow, rotated to form a spheroid and released to the microchamber for culture.

This acoustic bubble-based microfluidic device shows the ability of cell patterning and co-culture in complex structures. In this work, we explored the formation of the bubbles in the microfluidic device by the pre-designed micropillar arrays and two bubble motions. Particle and cell patterning with complex geometric shapes in this microfluidic device is demonstrated. Furthermore, a co-culture model is demonstrated based on our approach, enabling patterning and co-culture of different types of cells in a pre-designed structure.