A user-friendly, self-contained, programmable microfluidic cell culture system for high quality microscopy

We present a fully self-contained system for long-term cell culture with real-time, high quality microscopic access and programming capabilities for constant perfusion live-cell assays. When assembled, the system constitutes a closed unit complete with microfluidic culturing chip, reservoirs, interconnections and flow control without the need for external mechanical components. Being designed especially for use in cell labs and to fit into standard motorized stages in inverted life science microscopes the system is user-friendly for operators without a microfluidic background. To demonstrate the system capabilities we show examples of switching between different liquids and long-term cell culture with time-lapse imaging.