Photopolymer microfluidic devices for infrared spectral microscopy of live cells

Infrared (IR) spectral microscopy is a label-free analytical technique that provides spatiotemporal information of chemistry in samples with minimal perturbation. A limiting factor in applying IR spectral microscopy to characterize live cells and tissues using conventional microfluidics while maintaining the physiochemical conditions is the strong infrared absorption from both the water in aqueous media and organic polymers in microfluidics, which could overwhelms and masks the intrinsic biochemical signatures. To overcome the limitation, here we introduce an innovative soft-lithographic fabrication method for a rapid production of photopolymer-based device integrating microfluidic with IR-Visible optics.