Refractive index measurement of single living cell using biophotonic chip

This project combines microfluidic and micro-optical technologies to develop an integrated biophotonic chip for single cell analysis. More specifically the effective refractive index (RI) of cells is determined. The microfluidic system serves as a tool for single living cell manipulation, while the micro-optical system serves as a sensor to measure the effective RI of a single living cell in real time. By using RI as an indicator, any slight changes inside the cells can be detected. Therefore the biophotonic chip has a series of potential applications in many disease diagnostic devices in the future.