"Cytotoxicity is a vital effector mechanism used by immune cells to combat pathogens and cancer cells. While conventional cytotoxicity assays rely on averaged end-point measures, crucial insights on the dynamics and heterogeneity of effector and target cell interactions cannot be extracted, emphasizing the need for...
Immunoassays are extensively used for quantifying biomarkers in clinical laboratories. This week’s research highlight focuses on a capillary-driven microfluidic device for rapid and sensitive one-step immunoassay published in Microsystems and Nanoengineering Journal in which gold nanorods were employed in the reaction chambers to enhance the...
Passive microfluidics, such as capillary-driven microfluidics, are excellent candidates for point-of-care applications. A passive method for delivering reagents to the device and performing reaction is advantageous in terms of cost and portability compared to active methods where an external means is employed for this purpose....
Biofilms are complex consortiums of microbiomes that can adhere to each other and to surfaces. Biofilms can develop a shield against antibiotics and the host immune systems and thus can be very challenging to treat. A research group from Spain has now developed a microfluidic...
Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters have higher potential for extravasation and have been shown to have elevated metastatic potential than single CTCs that can reach up to 100-fold. CTC-neutrophil clusters are composed of single neutrophils and cancer cells with a pairing ratio from 1:1 to...