A cell-based drug screening assay on a centrifugal platform

Abstract Drug screening is an indispensable procedure in drug development and pharmaceutical research. For cell-based drug testing, cells were treated with compounds at different concentrations, and their responses were measured to assess the compounds’ effects on cellular behavior. A concentration gradient test creates a growth environment with different compound concentrations for cultured cells, facilitating faster determination of the compound concentration’s effect on cellular responses. However, most concentration gradient tests on cell cultures were carried out manually, which is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Microfluidic technology enables drug screening to be conducted in microstructures, which not only improves efficiency and sensitivity but also reduces reagent usage and operating time. Centrifugal microfluidics utilizes the rotation of a disk platform to perform complex fluid functions such as pumping, metering, and mixing. The complete process can be carried out with a low-cost motor without the need for an expensive pumping system. In this work, a centrifugal platform for drug screening is presented. The microfluidic platform can be divided into two parts. The inner disk features branch structures designed to establish a concentration gradient for cell growth. The outer ring contains fluidics for cell culturing, which can discharge the waste fluid when the nutrient is exhausted and replenish the new culture medium by spinning the platform. In conclusion, the proposed centrifugal platform can provide a rapid generation of the concentration gradients and automate the operation of cell culturing. It provides an efficient and low-cost platform for drug screening.