Research review paper Immunology on chip: Promises and opportunities Sara Baratchi a,b, ⁎, Khashayar Khoshmanesh a , Catarina Sacristán c , David Depoil c , Donald Wlodkowic d , Peter McIntyre b , Arnan Mitchell a, ⁎⁎ a School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia b Health Innovations Research Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia c Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University, School of Medicine, NewYork, USA d BioMEMS Research Group, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia abstract article info Article history: Received 13 June 2013 Received in revised form 4 November 2013 Accepted 17 November 2013 Available online xxxx Keywords: Microfluidics Lab on a chip Immunology Immunoassays Microfluidics has facilitated immunological studies by enhancing speed, efficiency and sensitivity of current anal- ysis methods. It offers miniaturization of current laboratory equipment, and enables analysis of clinical samples without the need for sophisticated infrastructure. More importantly, microfluidics offers unique capabilities; including conducting multiple serial or parallel tasks as well as providing complex and precisely controlled envi- ronmental conditions that are not achievable using conventional laboratory equipment. Microfluidics is a prom- ising technology for fundamental and applied immunological studies, allowing generation of high throughput, robust and portable platforms, opening a new area of automation in immunology. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 2. The architecture of a future “immuno” lab-on-a-chip prototype system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3. On-chip manipulation of cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1. Cell sorting and immobilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1.1. Mechanical filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1.2. Dielectrophoresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1.3. Magnetophoresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1.4. Acoustophoresis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1.5. Surface antigen–antibody affinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.1.6. Fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.2. Cell analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.2.1. Cell migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.2.2. Flow cytometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.2.3. Immunophenotyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.2.4. Single molecule analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 3.3. Cell lysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 4. On-chip manipulation of nucleic acids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 4.1. Purification of nucleic acids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 4.2. Amplification of nucleic acids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 4.3. Separation of nucleic acids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5. On-chip manipulation of proteins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5.1. Detection of proteins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5.2. Purification of proteins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5.3. Separation and analysis of proteins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 5.4. Interfacing protein separation with mass spectrometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Biotechnology Advances xxx (2013) xxx–xxx ⁎ Correspondence to: S. Baratchi, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. ⁎⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: sara.baratchi@rmit.edu.au (S. Baratchi), arnan.mitchell@rmit.edu.au (A. Mitchell). JBA-06766; No of Pages 14 0734-9750/$ – see front matter © 2013 Published by Elsevier Inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2013.11.008 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biotechnology Advances journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biotechadv Please cite this article as: Baratchi S, et al, Immunology on chip: Promises and opportunities, Biotechnol Adv (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.biotechadv.2013.11.008