Microfluidics and single cell immunology for immune system characterization, diagnostics, and drug discovery

Abstract

Over the past years, microfluidics technology has grown from simple microsystem devices to more complex designs. It has become a popular choice for micro-total analysis systems by providing high precision liquid manipulation that conventional bench-top approaches can't do. This has led to its widespread application in single-cell analysis of immune cells for signaling molecules measurement, novel functional immune cell subsets identification, and comprehension of cellular communication/signaling pathways with the aim of developing new therapies, point-of-care diagnostics, and new drugs to manipulate and modulate the immune system.
The development of microfluidic platforms for single-cell analysis allowed us to account for heterogenous behavior of immune cells, which are often masked when conventional bulk methods are used. Here, we present some of our work on profiling single cells based on cell surface receptors, T-cell and antigen presenting cell (APC) interaction and activation, and granzyme B and cytokine production for cancer immunotherapy response prediction and treatment personalization.