Appeal No. 2006-2654
Application No. 10/100,276
application background, microfluidic devices were used in the prior art to
immobilize cells and monitor (“on-chip monitoring”) the cellular reactions
which take place in them. Id. at [0002]-[0005]. In these prior art devices,
cells were immobilized by constricting the channel pathway to a size smaller
than the dimension of the cell, retaining the cells in the constricted channel
while permitting the fluid to flow through it. Yang1 3991. In contrast, the
instant invention utilizes “dam” structures “constructed along the main flow
route parallel to the [channel’s] principle flow direction” to gently
immobilize “fragile” cells. Specification [0060]-[0061]. This is illustrated
in Fig. 9.
Claims 1-8, all the pending claims, are on appeal. We focus on
claim 1, the only independent claim. It reads as follows:
1. Apparatus for on-chip monitoring of cellular reactions
comprising, a surface formed with a plurality of channels for
fluid flow and means for supplying a cell bearing fluid to a first
of said channels, wherein a second of said channels extends
parallel and adjacent to the first said channel for at least a part
of their length and wherein the first and second channels are
separated over said at least one part of their length by a wall
defining a dam and over which fluid may flow from the first of
said channels into the second of said two channels.
1 Yang et al. (Yang), “Cell Docking and On-Chip Monitoring of Cellular
Reactions with a Controlled Concentration Gradient on a Microfluidic
Device,” Analytical Chemistry, 74: 3991-4001 (2002).
2
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