The integration of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with droplet microfluidics has the potential to improve our understanding of cellular dynamics. Herein, we present the first application of SERS droplet microfluidics for whole cell analysis. A microfluidic device was used to encapsulate single cells in water-in-oil droplets that were subsequently locked into a storage droplet array for spectroscopy investigation. The stationary droplets enabled the rapid identification of SERS regions of interest in live cells by allowing collection of “fast” coarse maps over an area of several mm<sup>2</sup> and then enabling “slower” detailed studies of the identified hotspots. We demonstrate SERS at the microscale with intracellular resolution via a proof-of-concept assay that detected glycan expression on the surface of prostate cancer cells. Our results showed a previously unobserved high degree of cell-to-cell variability by quantifying probe attachment per cell based upon corrected total intensity and the size of the glycan islands. This work illustrates the potential of SERS optofluidic systems for high-throughput single cell screening.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based optofluidics for whole cell analysis

256th National Meeting (2018)

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