Co-capture of magnetic beads and cells for single-cell analysis in microfluidic chambers

Abstract

We present a microfluidic chip for the capture of magnetic beads and magnetically labeled cells in more than 1000 microchambers of 0.15 nL size. The platform allows for immobilizing magnetic beads and labeled cells independent of their size for subsequent single cell analysis. Using a bead-based immunoassay we furthermore quantify secretion of Galectin-3 binding protein (Gal-3bp) from MCF-7 and SkBr3 cells with detection limits below 2000 molecules.