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An electroactive microwell array for trapping and lysing single-bacterial cells.

Author
Abstract
:

Interest in single-cell analysis has increased because it allows to understand cell metabolism and characterize disease states, cellular adaptation to environmental changes, cell cycles, etc. Here, the authors propose a device to electrically trap and lyse single-bacterial cells in an array format for high-throughput single-cell analysis. The applied electric field is highly deformed and concentrated toward the inside of the microwell structures patterned on the planar electrode. This configuration effectively generates dielectrophoretic force to attract a single cell per well. The microwell has a comparable size to the target bacterial cell making it possible to trap single cells by physically excluding additional cells. Inducing highly concentrated electric potential on the cell membrane can also effectively lyse the trapped single-bacterial cells. The feasibility of the authors' approach was demonstrated by trapping and lysing Escherichia coli cells at the single-cell level. The present microwell array can be used as a basic tool for individual bacterial cell analysis.

Year of Publication
:
2011
Journal
:
Biomicrofluidics
Volume
:
5
Issue
:
2
Number of Pages
:
24114
Date Published
:
2011 Jun
DOI
:
10.1063/1.3605508
Short Title
:
electroactive microwell array for trapping and lysing singlebact
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