Lithographically patterned micro-nozzles for controlling fluid flow profiles for drug delivery and in vitro imaging applications

Precisely controlling delivery of drugs and other reagents is important for intravital microscopy studies. In this work, photolithographic integration of micro-nozzles onto a microfluidic platform was performed to tune the fluid flow profile and depth of penetration into biological tissue mimics. Performance characteristics were measured by correlating the flow rate through the device to the applied pressure and/or delivery of dyes into solution and agarose gel-based phantom tissue. From these results, the implementation of micro-nozzles was demonstrated to significantly improve the lateral dispersion of delivered fluid and increase the depth of penetration into phantom tissue. Graphic abtsract