Cell culture and invasion assay method and system

1. A microfluidic system comprising:

a multi well plate, comprising a first well used as a flow inlet, a second well used as a cell/gel inlet, a third well used as an invasion chamber and a fourth well used as a flow outlet;

a cell/gel loading channel in communication with the second well, passing under the third well and terminating at the fourth well;

a flow channel in communication with the first well, passing under the third well and terminating at the fourth well;

a microfluidic device comprising a plurality of microstructures, the plurality of microstructures comprising:

a substantially linear invasion barrier in contact with the cell/gel loading channel and defining a single side of an invasion chamber, the invasion barrier separating the cell/gel loading channel from the invasion chamber, the invasion barrier allowing passage of gel and invasive cells into the invasion chamber; and

a substantially linear perfusion barrier separating the invasion chamber from the flow channel, the perfusion barrier defining a single side of the invasion chamber opposite from the invasion barrier, the perfusion barrier configured to retain the cell/gel mixture only within the invasion chamber and the cell/gel loading channel so that the cell/gel mixture does not enter the flow channel, wherein the flow channel is configured to provide a source of liquid media for feeding cells that are present in the cell/gel loading channel or the invasion chamber or both;

wherein said invasion chamber comprises a rectangular region disposed between said invasion barrier and said perfusion barrier, such that said perfusion barrier and said invasion barrier form two opposite parallel sides of said rectangular region, and

further wherein the microfluidic device is small enough to fit within a diameter of the third well in the multiple well plate, said diameter being about 7 millimeters or less.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the invasion barrier comprises a first set of channels, and the perfusion barrier comprises a second set of channels.

3. The system of claim 1 where the microfluidic device is positioned such that it is operational and viewable through the invasion chamber.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the first set of channels allows passage of invasive cells and the second set of channels does not.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein cells and gels are loaded using capillary flow from the cell/gel inlet well to the flow outlet well.

6. The system of claim 1 configured such that flow from the flow inlet to the flow outlet is driven by a gravity flow, defined as a flow arising from a liquid height difference between the first well and the fourth well.

7. The system of claim 2 further wherein:

the first set of channels have dimensions of about 50×8×8 μm in length, width, and height or about 25-100 μm, 4-12 μm, 4-12 μm in length, width, and height; and

the second set of channels have dimensions of about 2 μm or a minimum dimension of about 0.5-4 μm in height or width or both.

8. The system of claim 2 configured such that an invasion assay may be performed by enumerating a number of cells in the invasion chamber relative to a number of cells in the cell/gel loading channel at one or more time points.

9. The system of claim 1 :

wherein the multi wall plate is a standard N-well plate, where N equals any standard culture well plate, including 48, 96, 192, 384 well plates.

10. The system of claim 2 further wherein:

the second set of channels are narrower than cells to be cultured, such that cells cannot pass therethrough; and

the first set of channels are narrower than passive cells but wide enough to allow cell invasion.

11. The microfluidic system of claim 1 , wherein a cell/gel mixture is loaded into the second well.

12. The microfluidic system of claim 1 , wherein the cell/gel mixture comprises normal cells and invasive cells.

13. The microfluidic system of claim 1 , wherein the multi wall plate is a standard 96-well plate, and the microfluidic system comprises 24 independent invasion chambers, each having a dedicated flow inlet well, cell/gel inlet well and flow outlet well.

14. The microfluidic system of claim 1 , wherein the first well, the second well, the third well and the fourth well are arranged linearly.