An article recently published in Lab on a Chip on the capture and culture of rare circulating tumour cells from Donald Ingber and Joo Kang has featured on CNET and PhysOrg. The device, which the team describes as a ‘micromagnetic-microfluidic device’ is capable of separating almost 90% of circulating tumour cells from blood by binding them to magnetic beads. Due to the design of the channels in the device, the CTCs remain viable following isolation and can be used further for culture and testing.
Read the full article here:
A combined micromagnetic-microfluidic device for rapid capture and culture of rare circulating tumor cells
Joo H. Kang, Silva Krause, Heather Tobin, Akiko Mammoto, Mathumai Kanapathipillai and Donald E. Ingber
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC40072C
Gabriel Loget and Alexander Kuhn report for the first time the vertical propulsion of conducting beads in liquid filled capillaries by bipolar electrochemistry. Using a conical capillary a Yo-Yo type motion can be induced, making the concept then useful for cargo-lifting and of potential interest for microfluidic applications in lab-on-a-chip devices.
Philip LeDuc and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University report the development of a minimal-profile, three-dimensional (MP3D) experimental microdevice which confines cells to a single focal plane, allowing observation with conventional epifluorescent microscopy.
We’ve now published the 8th article is our 
Issue 7 is now available online, and the outside front cover features a HOT article by Aldo Jesorka and colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology, describing their use of a hydrodynamically confined microflow pipette as an optimized non-contact open-volume microfluidic tool, to overcome the common restriction of using closed microchannels.
The inside front cover is a Critical Review by David Beebe et al., discussing the use of PDMS and polystyrene by researchers working at the interface of microfluidics and cell biology research: