Microsystems for single cell analysis

Single cell analysis has become a topic of great interest in recent years. Any population of cells is heterogeneous. Whereas most traditional cell analysis can capture only average responses from a population of cells, single cell analysis allows measuring and analyzing this heterogeneity and enables identifying and studying various sub-populations. Microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip technologies are ideally suited for such analysis due to their unique capabilities in manipulating and analyzing micrometer-scale objects and accurately controlling their microenvironments. Two such examples of microfluidic devices for single cell analysis are presented here.