Objective

Droplet-based microfluidic has led to the development of highly powerful systems that represent a new paradigm in High-Throughput Screening where individual assays are compartmentalized within microdroplet microreactors. By combining a decrease of assay volume and an increase of throughput, this technology goes beyond the capacities of conventional screening systems. Droplets (in the pL to nL range) are produced as independent microreactors that can be further actuated and analyzed at rates of the order of 1000 droplets per seconds. Added to the flexibility and versatibility of platform designs, such progress in sub-nanoliter droplet manipulation allows for a level of control that was hitherto impossible. We will show Droplet based microfluidics allows to perform single cell experiments with high efficiency and high throughput by presenting several recently developed droplet-based strategies. In particular, the capabilities of the newly developed microfluidic platforms for single cell encapsulation, phenotypic characterization and sorting. Finally, we will emphasize on the potential applications of such platforms for cancer research and resistance to treatment analysis.