ABSTRACT
Chips for cells may perform many functions in the fields of biological science, drug discovery, diagnostics, and clinical testing.
7.1.1 Cell Culture Reactors
In conventional laboratory practice, cell culture is performed in sterile glass or polymer dishes that have often been pretreated such that the surfaces are hydrophilic. There are many advantages to miniaturizing cell cultures; however, the transfer of conventional techniques to microscale formats is not always an easy process. It has been shown that culture conditions associated with miniaturization and the use of new materials can have a profound impact on the resulting cellular behavior [1]. Even so, many researchers have demonstrated successful cultures of prokaryotic, insect, and mammalian cells in microsystems. These results contribute to the continued development of microfluidic techniques in cell culture.
