A review of chemical gradient systems for cell analysis

•Microfluidic systems can achieve new gradient modalities.•A review of gradient systems and applications.•Microfluidic gradient generators can be applied to a wide range of bioanalytical problems.

Microfluidic spatial and temporal gradient generators have played an important role in many biological assays such as in the analysis of wound healing, inflammation, and cancer metastasis. Chemical gradient systems can also be applied to other fields such as drug design, chemical synthesis, chemotaxis, etc. Microfluidic systems are particularly amenable to gradient formation, as the length scales used in chips enable fluid processes that cannot be conducted in bulk scale. In this review we discuss new microfluidic devices for gradient generation and applications of those systems in cell analysis.

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