The BiProMicro Technology

BiProMicro offers dynamic microfluidic single-cell cultivation (dMSCC) to investigate cells under precise and dynamically adjustable environments on the single-cell level using live cell imaging. With our microfluidic chip, we can alter cultivation conditions in seconds and thereby emulate environmental gradients like they are present in large-scale bioreactors. Thus, we can analyze your cells for robustness concerning bioreactor heterogeneities and evaluate the cells’ feasibility for industrial-scale bioproduction.

The BiProMicro technology was developed during the PhD theses of our team. On our microfluidic chips cells are cultivated in a monolayer growth chamber and constantly perfused with medium. This way, single cells can be investigated under precisely adjustable and defined cultivation environments. The chips are fabricated in-house from glass and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). PDMS is a transparent, gas-permeable, and biocompatible polymer which makes it the ideal material for dMSCC in combination with live cell imaging.

Due to its elaborated chip design with multiple inlets, dMSCC allows for rapid changes of cultivation conditions in the range of seconds. These can be simple switches or pulses that are applicable for e.g., drug/toxicity screenings or induction experiments but also symmetric or asymmetric oscillations to emulate the changing cultivation environments inside a large-scale bioreactor. The speed and precision of environmental control of dMSCC is unmatched and allows for full control over many input parameters.