Publications by Stefan Kobel | EPFL Graph Search

Diagnostic microchip to assay 3D colony-growth potential of captured circulating tumor cells

Matthias Lütolf, Stefan Kobel, Samy Gobaa

Microfluidic technology has been successfully applied to isolate very rare tumor-derived epithelial cells (circulating tumor cells, CTCs) from blood with relatively high yield and purity, opening up exciting prospects for early detection of cancer. However ...

2012

Microtechnologies to Map the Fate of Single Stem Cells and their Progeny

Stefan Kobel

Since stem cells have the unique ability to produce more of themselves (i.e. to "self-renew") and to generate specialized tissue cells, they are an ideal source of cells for regenerative medicine and in vitro tissue models. In order to fully exploit this p ...

EPFL2012

Automated analysis of single stem cells in microfluidic traps

Matthias Lütolf, Olivier Burri, Alessandra Griffa, Stefan Kobel, Arne Seitz, Mukul Girotra

We report a reliable strategy to perform automated image cytometry of single (non-adherent) stem cells captured in microfluidic traps. The method rapidly segments images of an entire microfluidic chip based on the detection of horizontal edges of microflui ...

2012

Controlled Breast Cancer Microarrays for the Deconvolution of Cellular Multilayering and Density Effects upon Drug Responses

Matthias Lütolf, Stefan Kobel

Background: Increasing evidence shows that the cancer microenvironment affects both tumorigenesis and the response of cancer to drug treatment. Therefore in vitro models that selectively reflect characteristics of the in vivo environment are greatly needed ...

Public Library of Science2012

Artificial niche microarrays for probing single stem cell fate in high throughput

Matthias Lütolf, Stefan Kobel, Samy Gobaa, Andrea Negro

To understand the regulatory role of niches in maintaining stem-cell fate, multifactorial in vitro models are required. These systems should enable analysis of biochemical and biophysical niche effectors in a combinatorial fashion and in the context of a p ...

Nature Publishing Group2011

Biomaterials meet microfluidics: building the next generation of artificial niches

Matthias Lütolf, Stefan Kobel

Biomaterials are increasingly being developed as in vitro microenvironments mimicking in vivo stem cell niches. However, current macroscale methodologies to produce these niche models fail to recapitulate the spatial and temporal characteristics of the com ...

Elsevier2011

Optimization of microfluidic single cell trapping for long-term on-chip culture

Matthias Lütolf, Philippe Renaud, Jonas Marcel Lätt, Stefan Kobel, Ana Valero

The poor efficiency of microfluidic single cell trapping is currently restricting the full potential of state-of-the-art single cell analyses. Using fluid dynamics simulations in combination with particle image velocimetry to systematically optimize trap a ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2010

Capturing Complex Protein Gradients on Biomimetic Hydrogels for Cell-Based Assays

Matthias Lütolf, Steffen Cosson, Stefan Kobel

versatile strategy to rapidly immobilize complex gradients of virtually any desired protein on soft poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogel surfaces that are reminiscent of natural extracellular matrices (ECM) is reported. A microfluidic chip is used to gener ...

2009

Micropatterning of Hydrogels by Soft Embossing

Matthias Lütolf, Thierry Laroche, Monika Limacher, Stefan Kobel, Samy Gobaa

Conventional in situ hydrogel micropatterning techniques work successfully for relatively stiff hydrogels, but they often result in locally damaged surfaces upon demolding in the case of soft and fragile polymer networks formed at low precursor concentrati ...

American Chemical Society2009

Enhancing the Reliability and Throughput of Neurosphere Culture on Hydrogel Microwell Arrays

Matthias Lütolf, Monika Limacher, Stefan Kobel

The neurosphere assay is the standard retrospective assay to test the self-renewal capability and multipotency of neural stem cells (NSC) in vitro. However, it has recently become clear that not all neurospheres are derived from a NSC and that on conventio ...

2008

Microfluidics-generated immobilized biomolecule gradients on hydrogels

Matthias Lütolf, Steffen Cosson, Stefan Kobel

Extra-cellular matrix (ECM) tethered morphogen gradients play an important role in tissue development and regeneration. There is currently only a limited set of model systems which can mimic these gradients in an artificial ECM-like environment. We have de ...

The Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society2008