Cell manipulation and single cell characterization on microfluidic devices

Cell is the structural and functional unit of life. The manipulation of fluids and cells is of vital importance in biotechnology, chemistry and biomedical areas. Microfluidics has provided a relatively simple, low-cost, and cell manipulation method. Different microfluidic technologies offer a variety of functions in the process of cell manipulation process, such as, cell separation, single cell trapping, single cell analysis. In this paper, we review emerging tools enabled by microfluidic technologies for cell manipulation including sorting and single cell trapping, and even single cell characterization. We summarized recent advance in the development of different methods for cell sorting, and single cell isolation. Focus was then put on electric field, mechanical, and fluorescence-based methods for single cell analysis and characterization, as well as the integrated microfluidic devices. We further discussed future commercialization and research prospects, highlight current bottlenecks and provide out perspective on the prospects for microfluidic cell manipulation.