Advances in numerical approaches for microfluidic cell analysis platforms

Abstract

Microfluidics has demonstrated enormous potential through its role in recent advances in biological sciences. However, designing a new and customized microfluidic platform, gaining a better understanding of its function and the underlying physics still pose significant technical challenges. On the one hand, experimental approaches have been commonly used for the development of microfluidic devices since they are accurate and evidence-based methods. However, these approaches are expensive and laborious. Numerical approaches, on the other hand, are now recognized as a reliable complementary method to reducing cost, time, and effort and being relatively accurate. This paper systematically reviews the capability of numerical approaches in developing efficient microfluidic technologies for cell analysis. Moreover, this paper provides an initial insight for researchers who are interested in establishing numerical approaches for microfluidic cell analysis platforms.