Reusability for scRNA-seq microfluidic chips

Question

[Diedes]

Hi all,

In most cases people throw away microfluidic chips that are being used for single cell RNA-seq, as the fear for cross contamination exists.

I was wondering, why is it so hard to clean and reuse them? And does anyone know a good protocol or paper for cleaning those chips that works? I think that if they can be cleaned successfully, it will save many groups some costs.

Thanks!

Edit: Even though it is not directly a Bioinformatics question, I guess that it are mainly Bioinformaticians who would know about this.

[Ram]

I don't think this is a bioinformatics question. It might be closed.

[Diedes]

Yes, but there is no better place to ask this, as it are mainly Bioinformaticians who would design such experiments.

Answer 1

[GenoMax]

Here is how I would look at this. In many of these modern day marvels we don't fully understand what chemistry/nano-technology/nano-engineering magic happens on these devices (most of the stuff is proprietary).

If the chips could be safely re-used then the company would have some incentive to design/market them that way (they can claim to be environmentally responsible). Since that is not the case with many of these devices, it is not worth the time/effort to risk re-using them, especially with precious samples that may be irreplaceable.

In most instances you would still need to buy the reagents from the company anyway, which they may not sell to you without the chip. You also run the risk of voiding your instrument warranty, if you over-ride any of the protections built in (e.g. serial number/reagent lot scans).

While it is not the same thing, ONT sells a "wash kit" for their FC. I don't know how many use it.

[ATpoint]

I fully support the good answer of genomax.

Adding on it, you already get plenty of inconclusive and difficult-to-interpret results from single-cell experiments, I really would not want to add the additional uncertainty by reusing chips and deviate from the manufacturers protocol. Imho, this is an attempt to save money on the wrong end.

[Diedes]

Hmm that wash kit is interesting, I am wondering if it would also work on every other chip haha. Maybe I'll mail them about it.

[GenoMax]

That kit is for nanopore flowcells, not micro-fluidic devices, as I noted above.