Microfluidic design optimization.

<p>(A) The size distribution, which was measured for cells in suspension, was similar for pluripotent (green) and differentiating (red) cells, with modal cell sizes of ~12 <i>μ</i>m. (B–D) The design of the microfluidic device requires cells to experience strain for sorting to occur. As the gap size was increased from 9.3 to 15.6 <i>μ</i>m, the fraction of cells experiencing strain (gray shading) decreased. However, as the 9.3 <i>μ</i>m gap caused device clogging, an 11.5 <i>μ</i>m gap was determined to be optimal. (E–F) Optimization studies indicated that a low total flow rate would increase both the fraction of pluripotent cells reaching the soft outlet and the fraction of differentiated cells reaching the middle outlet. The fraction of cells reaching the stiff outlet was negligible compared to the fractions of cells reaching the soft and middle outlets.