Team:TU Eindhoven/Modeling/Cell Encapsulation Modeling

Cell Encapsulation Modeling

The modeling group focused on the microfluidics. With microfluidics the cells are separated into a single droplet. This process however is not very accurate. Sometimes the droplets do not contain the desired number of cells. This can be modelled using a Poisson distribution. In this model you can define an average number of cells per droplet, lambda. Lambda was varied to choose a suitable average number of cells per droplet for our microfluidic device.

Figure 1. Poisson distribution for multiple lambdas.

This allows for the determination of the ratios between one cell/zero cells and one cell/ two or more cells. These both have to be as high as possible for a specific lambda.

Figure 2. Ratio between one cell/ zero cells or more cells

Based on these results a lambda of 0.3 was chosen for the microfluidic device. The Poisson distribution for different number of cells becomes then as follows.

Figure 3. Modeled Poisson distribution for a specific lambda of 0.3 together with vs. the experimental Poisson distribution based on a lambda of 0.3.

Bibliography

Mazutis, Linas, John Gilbert, W Lloyd Ung, David A Weitz, Andrew D Griffiths and John A Heyman. Single-cell analysis and sorting using droplet-based microfluidics. Nature protocols 8.5 (2013): 870-891.