Microfluidics: Microfluidic Single‐Cell Analysis with Affinity Beads (Small 22/2015)

To investigate functional heterogeneity between individuals in a cell population, affinity beads are transferred into living mammalian cells by H. Vogel and co-workers. On page 2607, beads coated with specific capture agents efficiently bind and up-concentrate cytosolic target proteins on their surface. For single-cell analysis, an optically trapped bead with bound target proteins is extracted from its host cell in a microfluidic device. Compared to classical chemical cytometry, this method has the potential to reach high analytical sensitivity and throughput for single-cell analysis in many biomedical fields.