Abstract
We present a novel cell manipulation method based on vibration-induced flow in open-chip environment. By applying circular vibration to a chip having micropillars, local flow is induced around the micropillars. Therefore, by patterning micropillar array on the chip and applying the circular vibration, we can achieve cell transportation along the array in the open chip environment. We theoretically analyzed this phenomenon with a single micropillar, and experimentally evaluated behaviors of manipulated microbeads with two micropillars. We confirmed there are different manipulation modes according to the pitch of micropillars. We designed the micropillar array for transportation of mouse oocytes based on these evaluations. We succeeded in transportation of oocytes with up to 35.6 μm/s and confirmed that the transportation velocity can be changed by changing the frequency and amplitude of the applied vibration.
