封面專題•COVER STORY 澳大新語•2020 UMAGAZINE 22 41 賈艷偉教授從新加坡國立大學獲博士學位，後曾於美國布蘭迪斯大學從事博士後研究。目前主力研究用 於疾病診斷和精準醫療的數位微流控技術。賈教授在第九屆光流體交叉學科國際研討會上獲頒創新獎。 翟蛟博士從中國科學院大學獲生物無機化學博士學位，研究生物學分析和腫瘤治療。在澳大進行博士後 研究期間聚焦數位微流控藥物篩查技術。 Prof Jia Yanwei obtained her PhD degree from the National University of Singapore and received her postdoctoral training at Brandeis University in the United States. She leads a group to work on digital microfluidics for disease diagnostics and precision medicine. She won an Innovation Award at the Ninth International Multidisciplinary Conference on Optofluidics. Dr Zhai Jiao obtained her PhD degree in bioinorganic chemistry from the University of Chinese Academy of Science. Her PhD research mainly focused on biological analysis and tumour therapy. She later worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UM to study drug screening on digital microfluidics. 澳大研究員開發的 數位微流控芯片 The DMF chip developed by UM researchers 不過，單細胞在這些器皿內會聚合起 來，令人難以觀察它們各自的變化。針 對這一難題，澳大研究人員在數位微流 控芯片內設計許多三維微結構，分別形 成近千個半封閉式微孔，每個微孔邊長 20微米，剛好足以容納一個細胞。 相關論文已在《自然》旗下權威期刊 《Microsystems & Nanoengineering》刊 登。賈教授表示：「這些半封閉式的微 孔能讓在同一個液滴內的單細胞保持通 訊，有助準確反映藥物對於群體細胞的 作用。同時，這些半開放的微孔可以使 液滴界面形成一個個凹面，在整個培養 過程中維持單細胞狀態。」 比起一般的培養器皿，澳大開發的系統 體積較小，所需的藥物和細胞量可以減 少上百倍，大大減低成本。翟博士說： 「要測試一個藥物濃度的反應，用96孔 盤大概需要100微升試劑量，而我們的數 位微流控系統只需要一微升甚至更少。」 目前，研究人員仍在改良系統，期望讓 醫生和研究人員將腫瘤細胞和藥物分別 加入到芯片，用電腦在芯片內混合細胞 與藥物，進一步把整個過程自動化。 cells, usually in Petri dishes and well plates. However, these culture plates do not allow researchers to observe the differences among individual single cells as they tend to aggregate. To tackle this problem, UM researchers engineered 3D microstructures on a DMF chip for single-cell cultures. The microstructure forms nearly 1,000 semi-closed square micro-wells, each of which has a length of 20 μm ‑ just the right size for a single cell. The study has been published by Microsystems & Nanoengineering, an authoritative journal under the Nature Publishing Group. ‘The semi-closed wells allow single cells in the same droplet to maintain intercellular communication so that we can accurately observe the effects of drugs on cell colonies,’ Prof Jia says. ‘They form a concave surface at the droplet interface and keep the cells in the single-cell state.’ In many ways, the DMF system is a marked advancement from conventional culture plates: It is much smaller and requires 100 times lower volume of drugs and cells, thus sharply decreasing the cost of drug screening. ‘Using a 96‑well plate takes 100 μl reagent to test one drug concentration, but our DMF needs only one μl or less,’ Dr Zhai says. The researchers are still working toward further automation of single‑cell culture. With consistent improvement, the DMF system will hopefully allow doctors and researchers to add tumour cells and drugs to the chip separately, and remotely control their on-chip combination.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ1NDU2Ng==