Various types of single-cell analyses are now extensively used to answer many biological questions, and with this growth in popularity, potential drawbacks to these methods are also becoming apparent. Depending on the specific application, workflows can be laborious, low throughput, and run the risk of contamination. Microfluidic designs, with their advantages of being high throughput, low in reaction volume, and compatible with bio-inert materials, have been widely used to improve single-cell workflows in all major stages of single-cell applications, from cell sorting to lysis, to sample processing and readout. Yet, designing an integrated microfluidic chip that encompasses the entire single-cell workflow from start to finish remains challenging. In this article, we review the current microfluidic approaches that cover different stages of processing in single-cell analysis and discuss the prospects and challenges of achieving a full integrated workflow to achieve total single-cell analysis in one device.

中文翻译：

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微流体单细胞分析—集成和总片上分析

现在，各种类型的单细胞分析已广泛用于回答许多生物学问题，并且随着这种流行度的增长，这些方法的潜在缺点也变得显而易见。根据特定的应用程序，工作流程可能很费力，吞吐量低，并且存在被污染的风险。微流体设计具有高通量，低反应体积以及与生物惰性材料兼容的优点，已被广泛用于改善单细胞应用从细胞分选到裂解的所有主要阶段的单细胞工作流程，进行样品处理和读出。然而，设计一个从头到尾涵盖整个单细胞工作流程的集成微流控芯片仍然具有挑战性。在这篇文章中，