A Microfluidic Dual-well Device for High-throughput Single-cell Capture and Culture
as well as the process of cell culture
These two technologies were developed by a team led by Dr.
Chia-Hsien Hsu of NHRI’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine.
The related lines of research began in 2012 after Dr. Hsu noticed problems with
monoclone culture for antibody therapy. To improve the situation, Dr. Hsu’s
team designed a highly efficient cell-manipulation technique that can be used
to capture single cells and subsequently culture them into monoclonal cell
groups. This important finding not only was published as the cover story of the
Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Lab on a Chip in 2015 but received the
National Innovation Award in 2018. By using a combination of the microfluidic
dual-well device and the selective particle transfer method developed later,
researchers can manipulate and culture single cells highly efficiently without
expensive machines or repetitive manual operations.
Successful biomedical technology transfers such as these are made
possible by the government’s promotion policies and leadership of the Ministry
of Health and Welfare.