Development Of a Microfluidic Colorectal Cancer Cell Culture System with Integrated Optical Sensors for Rapid Phage Selection

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is responsible for millions of deaths every year. The staggering numbers call for the development of efficient diagnostic and treatment strategies, since the survival chances increase with earlier detection, in addition to the interpatient variability of treatment efficiency. Phage display emerges as a promising technique that allows the screening of new therapeutics for a specific target. In the present work, a microfluidic platform to culture CRC cells from the HCT-116 cell line for at least 48 h was developed. The cultured cells were then used as targets for BODIPY-FL labelled M13 phage capture and the signals were monitored through fluorescence microscopy imaging. Furthermore, a microfabricated a-Si:H photodiode and a custom-designed high-pass interference filter were developed and incorporated in the acquisition setup to allow the acquisition of fluorescence signal from the labelled M13 phages without the need of a fluorescence microscope.