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wrong flow rate on your cells

Most researchers working in the field of cell biology work with a wrong flow rate: main reasons & solutions

shear stress cell biology flow rate

A wrong flow rate implies:

  • A wrong chemical response of cell
  • A wrong medium control
  • A wrong drug delivery
  • Uncontrolled shear stress

We provide a simple solution enabling to know the real flow rate delivered by any type of fluid handling systems.

Need to know your real delivered flow rate?

The knowledge of the real flow rate on cells is possible

FlowSensors-2 - copieThere is a solution available enabling to know the real flow rate in you cells culture chamber. At the end it is a benefit for your experiments and then for science.

All you need is an accurate flow sensor enabling you to know the real flow rate delivered by your syringe pumps.

ELVEFLOW® provides a complete and Plug-&-Play solution to enhance your experiments. Connect and monitor your flow rate here!

main technical reasons about wrong flow rate on cells

microfluidic syringe pumpThe syringe pumps are the most used fluid handling systems for microbiology experiments. Most of the time there is a mismatch between the setting flow-rate and the real flow-rate applied in cell culture chambers. Researchers do not know the real flow rate of fluids (drugs, medium etc…) on their cells which involves experimental errors.

Microbiologists mainly work at low flow rates to limit shear stess on their cells. And particulary at low flow rate, syringe pumps are inaccurate due to several factors (main ones ranking in order of probability):

  • Hydrodynamic resistance of the fluidic network
  • Compliance of the fluidic network
  • Presence of bubbles in the fluidic network
  • Clogging of the fluidic network

syringe pump oscillationThe supplied syringe pumps’ flow rate is false. Rigorously, it is very imprecise. Indeed, especially at the syringe pumps’ start it takes few seconds to several hours to establish the required flow rate.

more details on cell culture with syringe pumps principle

On the graph below (with a simple experiment) we show the time when the expected flow rate delivered by a syringe pump is false. The red curve represent the response time of a syringe pump. The blue one the response time of a pressure pump associated to a flow sensor. A pressure sensor is very responsive and is considered as the required flow rate, then it proves how a syringe pump is not relevant for researchers monitoring cell culture..

flow control shear stress cell culture medium

The response time mainly depends of the flow control apparatus (of course) but also of the 4 main factors previously established. We provide deeper details in the following page.

IMPROVE FLOW CONTROL USING FLOW RESTRICTORS

Inadequate resistance leads to poor flow control. We provide here a solution to improve the accuracy of their experiments.

microfluidic flow restrictor

GETTING ACCURATE DRUG DELIVERY

Drug discovery and development are key topics nowadays. We provide here answers for a more effective and targeted drug administration.

drug delivery microfluidics

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

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“For us the biggest advantage is the outstanding control on the flow with fast response times. ”

– Samuel Kilchenmann, Laboratory of Life Sciences Electronics, EPFL

“We are using the device extensively at the moment and I have been quite impressed by its capabilities”

– Hayden Taylor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Berkeley

“For my work, the ability to apply varying known pressures is very important. The AF1 does it very well and it is easy to use.”

 – Ravi Sinha, University of Twente

“We really appreciate the stability and low response time of the flow controller, which is important when various flow conditions must be applied successively.”

Dr. Marie RobinLaboratoire AMPERE, Université Claude Bernard LYON 1

“Elveflow’s support has been excellent and software development is continuing.”

Dr. Rob WardMassey University

“Overall we are satisfied with the equipment and highly recommend it to anyone who is working in the microfluidics field.”

Dr. Weiqiang ChenBiomechanics Laboratory (IBBL)

“The ELVEFLOW instrument is precise (in term of repetability) and robust: it can run continuously for many hours”

– Dr. Olivier Sandre, LCPO

“The ELVEFLOW system has mainly enabled us to simplify several complex experimental setups by replacing them by the ELVEFLOW pressure pump .”

–  Dr. Arnaud Saint-JalmesCNRS

“We are satisfied with the ELVEFLOW instrument, the regulation accuracy is well fitted with our applications”

– Pr. Annie Viallat,  Adhesion & Inflammation Lab – CNRS UMR 6212 – INSERM UMR 600

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