Microfluidic Tissue Model for Live Cell Screening

We have developed a microfluidic platform modeled after the physiologic microcirculation for multiplexed tissue‐like culture and high‐throughput analysis. Each microfabricated culture unit consisted of three functional components: a 50 μm wide cell culture pocket, an artificial endothelial barrier with 2 μm pores, and a nutrient transport channel. This configuration enabled a high density of cancer cells to be maintained for over 1 week in a solid tumor‐like morphology when fed with continuous flow. The microfluidic chip contained 16 parallel units for “flow cell” based experiments where live cells were exposed to a soluble factor and analyzed via fluorescence microscopy or flow‐through biochemistry. Each fluidically independent tissue unit contained ∼500 cells fed with a continuous flow of 10 nL/min. As a demonstration, the toxicity profile of the anti‐cancer drug paclitaxel was collected on HeLa cells cultured in the microfluidic format and compared with a 384‐well dish for up to 5 days of continuous drug exposure.