Microfluidic biochip for phytoplankton cell counting

We present a prototype of a PDMS-based microfluidic device for automatic counting of phytoplankton cells in culture solution. The device functioning is based on monitoring changes in the intensity of a cross-channel fiber optical signal during downstream cell transit. The microfluidc chip is fabricated by PDMS soft lithography technique, and the light source and the detection unit are commercial LED and photodiodes integrated to the microfluidic device. The results demonstrate the reliability of the automatic counting experiments as compared with a manual microscopic counting method.