The ability of cells to detect chemical gradients and to align their movement to them is an important physiological mechanism. Examples are the cell movements of neutrophils in tissues or of cells during angiogenesis. The reactions to chemotactic stimuli occur in the range of seconds. Studies on chemotactic cell stimulation therefore require chemical stimuli in very short time frames. Microfluidic systems offer a suitable platform for this purpose.
Experimental
We developed a microfluidic setup to study the chemotactic response of single cells in the range of seconds. Cells fixed in the fluid stream are exposed to chemotactic stimuli and the time-dependent directional motion of the cells is detected. Knock-out and fluorescence variants are used for microscopic analysis of the cells.
Publications within this project:
- Aquino G., Tweedy L., Heinrich D.M. & Endres R. (2014), Memory improves precision of cell sensing in fluctuating environments, SCIENTIFICREPORTS4: 5688.article in journal: refereed
- Tweedy L., Meier B., Stephan J., Heinrich D.M. & Endres R.G. (2013), Distinct cell shapes determine accurate chemotaxis, SCIENTIFICREPORTS3: 2602.article in journal: refereed
- Meier B., Zielinski A., Weber C., Arcizet D., Youssef S., Franosch T., Rädler J.O.. & Heinrich D.M. (2012), Chemotactic cell trapping in controlled alternating gradient fields, Proceedingsof theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(28): 11417-11422.article in journal: refereed
