![Transcription factories in a Hela cell [from Cook PR (1999) Science 284, 1790]](../pombo.png)
| Overview | |
| Conventional microfluidic circuits take days to make. The introduction of 'Freestyle Fluidics' changes this (Walsh EJ et al, 2017, Nat Commun 8, 816). Now you can make a circuit in much the same time as it takes to draw that circuit on a piece of paper. This YouTube movie runs in real time as a ‘pen’ prints a circuit containing cell-growth medium + blue dye on a 6 cm Petri dish. 'Conduits' have base widths of about 500 microns, and maximum heights of about 150 microns. Inter-facial forces are powerful at the micro-scale, and they firmly 'pin' the circuit to the dish (in the same way they pin raindrops to window panes). |
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