Inertial Focusing of Nuclei in Xenopus Egg Extract

The enlargement of nuclei can be an indicator of diseases such as cancer. While we know that this occurs, the mechanism behind nuclei scaling is unclear. We applied microfluidic encapsulation technology to encapsulate nuclei into different sized and shaped droplets, creating an artificial cell to test scaling mechanisms in a more in vitro environment. In previous experiments, this has proven to be hard because the nuclei stick together causing tens of nuclei to be encapsulated together, not one as wanted. To separate the nuclei, inertial focusing was used, as it has a predictable outcome and is passive in order to not harm the nuclei during focusing. This novel approach of using inertial focusing to separate an organelle will be described and explained.