Self-seeding microwell chip for the isolation and characterization of single cellsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5lc00304k

A self-seeding microwell chip is introduced for the isolation and interrogation of single cells. A cell suspension is transferred to a microwell chip containing 6400 microwells, each microwell with a single 5 μm pore in the bottom. The fluid enters the microwell and drags a cell onto the pore. After a cell has landed onto the pore, it will stop the fluid flow through this microwell. The remaining fluid and cells will be diverted to the next available microwell. This results in a fast and efficient distribution of single cells in individual microwells. After identification by fluorescence microscopy, the cells of interest are isolated from the microwell by punching the bottom together with the cell. The overall single cell recovery of seeding followed by isolation of the single cell, is >70% with a specificity of 100% as confirmed by the genetic make-up of the isolated cells. Self-seeding microwells are designed to separate all cells in a suspension. Cells block the pores in the bottom of the well thereby forcing the other cells into free wells.