A compact microfluidic gradient generator using passive pumping

Abstract

Creating and maintaining a precise molecular gradient which is stable in space and time are essential to studies of chemotaxis. This paper describes a simple, compact, and user-friendly microfluidic device using a passive pumping method to drive the liquid flow to generate a stable concentration gradient. A fluidic circuit is designed to offset the effects of the pressure imbalance between the two inlets. After loading approximately the same amount of culture media containing different concentrations of a certain chemotactic agent into the two inlet reservoirs, a linear concentration gradient will be automatically and quickly established at the downstream. Our device takes advantage of passive pumping and is compact enough to fit into a Petri dish, which is an attractive feature to biologists. Furthermore, this microfluidic gradient generator offers a platform for a facile way of long-term imaging and analysis using high resolution microscopy.