MICROELECTRONIC ARRAYS FOR CELL-BASED FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS / HIGH THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING BY ELECTROKINETIC ASSEMBLY

摘要

An electrochemical apparatus (1) permits electric-field-assisted fluidic assembly of objects (2) on a patterned silicon substrate (11) by means of electrical addressing. Charged objects (2) such as beads and live cells are moved electrokinetically, like as in electrophoresis, through a solution, typically water (3), towards a micro-patterned charged semiconductor electrode, such as a silicon electrode (11) patterned with silicon dioxide, silicon nitride or agarose gel. The charged objects (2) are thus localized and assembled, most typically into arrays of multiple or single particles, in accordance with the patterning of the electrode (11). Correlating with theoretical predictions, negatively charged polystyrene beads of 20 mu m diameter, or live mammalian cells of 20-30 mu m diameter, can be assembled and disassembled on 100 mu m feature size micro-patterned substrates by means of electrical addressing. The apparatus (1) has application in creation of active cellular arrays for cell biology research, drug discovery and tissue engineering.