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Lab on a Chip

Microfluidic & nanofluidic technologies for chemistry, physics, biology, and bioengineering



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Paper

Lab Chip, 2006, 6, 185 - 190, DOI: 10.1039/b516119c

Characterization of the local temperature in space and time around a developing Drosophila embryo in a microfluidic device

Elena M. Lucchetta, Matthew S. Munson and Rustem F. Ismagilov

This paper characterizes a microfluidic platform that differentially controls the temperature of each half of a living Drosophila melanogaster fruitfly embryo in space and time (E. M. Lucchetta, J. H. Lee, L. A. Fu, N. H. Patel and R. F. Ismagilov, Nature, 2005, 434, 1134–1138). This platform relies on laminar flow of two streams of liquid with different temperature, and on rapid prototyping in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Here, we characterized fluid flow and heat transport in this platform both experimentally and by numerical simulation, and estimated the temperature distribution around and within the embryo by numerical simulation, to identify the conditions for creating a sharper temperature difference (temperature step) over the embryo. Embryos were removed from the device and immunostained histochemically for detection of Paired protein. Biochemical processes are sensitive to small differences in environmental temperature. The microfluidic platform characterized here could prove useful in understanding dynamics of biochemical networks as they respond to changes in temperature.

Graphical abstract image for this article (ID: b516119c)