TE designs,  develops, and manufactures microfluidic isolation and library preparation devices for single-cell analysis. Our  engineering team develops highly accurate microchannel geometries to ensure functionality within tight tolerances. Moreover, our designs optimize assay workflows, automate cell isolation steps (e.g., encapsulation, labeling, and marking), and simplify library preparation. Our microfluidic platforms are ideal for cell sorting, isolation, encapsulation, and lysis. 

Utilizing our microfluidic platforms can lead to significant benefits over
conventional systems, such as: 

•  Consolidation and automation of assay steps (i.e., sampling, positioning, dissolution, reaction, encapsulation, labeling, marking and or single cell detection).
• Closed assay environments— preventing contamination and improving cell viability.
• Lower reagent and sample usage
• Reduced assay costs
• Reduced system complexity

Rely on TE for microfluidic design, development, and production engineering for single-cell analysis chips, ranging from complete lab-on-a-chip solutions to fully integrated microfluidic devices such as those used in point-of-care (POC) kits. TE’s microfluidic engineers design and select the ideal platform and materials for investigations into intracellular signaling pathways, activations dynamics, cytotoxicity, antibody screening, transcriptional factor activities, signaling molecular secretion, and cellular communication.

Core Competencies:

• Microfluidic Chip Design for Single-Cell Analysis
• Whole and Targeted Genome Analysis
• Microfluidic Cell Isolation:

                -  Droplet (e.g.,Drop-Seq and InDrop Labeling)

                -  Microwell (Custom Pore Size and Surface Treatment)

                - Trap (U-Shaped, Microfluidic Channel, and Optical and Electrical                            Tweezers)

• Thermal Cycling
• STAMP Barcoding
• Cytometry

SCA Applications: 

• Breast/Lung/Brain/Colon/Bladder Cancers
• Leukemia and Melanoma
• Immunology
• Microbiology
• Neurobiology
• Prenatal Diagnosis
• Embryogenesis

With a deep knowledge of micro/nano-scale applications and production processes, TE helps design and develop your single-cell analysis systems with manufacturability and reliability in mind. Our in-house clinical team can plan and conduct full clinical studies needed to support FDA and EU pre- or post- marketing regulatory requirements.  

Conventional methods are often plagued by sample loss, long protocol times, numerous manual steps, high costs and typically require expensive bulky equipment (e.g., FACS cytometers), and highly trained operators. They can also inhibit immune system findings by masking phenotype, proteins, expressed genes, or metabolites at single-cell levels and cellular communication between immune cells. Typical biological methods like ELISA fail to provide adequate spatial and temporal manipulation of cells required for the identification of heterogeneity. 

TE's droplet-based isolation techniques allow for the adjustment of flow conditions to encapsulate single cells in droplets to undergo lysis, DNA/RNA extraction, antibiotic susceptibility tests, or heterogeneity assessments, among others. We also
assist in the use of hydrogel droplet encapsulation and crosslinking for long-term
culturing and analysis. Because single-cell analyses require different reagents and protocols based on the investigation at hand, we can customize the microfluidic chip design and assay protocol to suit your research agenda, whether it be for genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, or epigenomics.