Micropatterning of hydrogel and on-chip long time monitoring of individual cells in a cage

We developed a novel technique to observe individual cells in various environments using a cage made of patterned hydrogel on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chips. The hydrogel is polymerized by UV-ray illumination (300-400 nm) on a glass surface, which is spin coated with the water-soluble prepolymer solution, and immobilized on the glass surface. The hydrogel is hydrophilic, transparent, biocompatible. Then, the PDMS microchannel is assembled and bonded on it. We transported cells into a cage using optical tweezers. In the cage, solution flow is stable and chemicals permeate through the wall, so cells are not flowed and we can change chemical conditions around cells stably. We succeeded in making a system to observe cells stably for long time.