Microfluidics-based devices for manipulation and analysis of cells

Research Goal

The Vaccine Research Center (VRC) has a long-standing interest in understanding humoral immune responses to vaccination and natural infection in order to improve and develop vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases. The center uses flow cytometry coupled with high-throughput sequencing of B-cell receptors and yeast display technologies to perform our studies (https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4052). A key component of the pipeline is a high-throughput sequencing method that relies on a custom-made coaxial flow focusing device for co-encapsulating cells and superparamagnetic oligo beads. However, the current device is cumbersome to assemble and use. We would like to develop and use microfluidics-based devices for the encapsulation steps to simplify the operation and to provide the capacity for parallel processing of multiple samples. Projects for summer 2020 BESIP interns to participate could include:

• Development of single-use PDMS microdevices with integrated nozzles for use in high-throughput B-cell receptor sequencing
• Development of processes to perform controlled on-chip mixing of droplets and parallel processing of multiple samples to increase throughput and analysis capacity

A BESIP student working on this project should have an interest in microfabrication and the application of microdevices for manipulation and analysis of cells. Device fabrication and characterization will be performed in the Morgan lab in NIBIB; once the devices are validated, they will be used on cell lines and eventually clinical samples in the laboratories of the Paired Sequencing and Yeast Technologies Unit of the VRC.