Resumen de Suspended micro- and nanotools for cell biology
This thesis presents the design, technological development, characterization and chemical and biological validations of five types of suspended Micro- and NanoTools which are focused on being functional tools for cell biology.
This research is possible thanks to the recent advances in micro- and nanotechnologies, where the application of miniaturization techniques at cell scale is already a reality. Therefore and taking advantage of the silicon microtechnologies, the obtaining of several Chip-on/in-a-Cell systems, small enough to label and track living embryos or even sense and act into single living cells in an extra- and intracellular way, is presented. One of the most relevant new features of the Micro- and NanoTools presented in this thesis is the capability of being suspended, meaning that these devices can be released from the wafer, be co-cultured with living cells and directly interact with them. These Micro- and NanoTools present different shapes, sizes, materials and specific functionalities, as the combination of these features or even the incorporation of nanostructured parts in a single device confer them the potential of being multi-functional.
Summarizing, the extensive capabilities of the presented Micro- and NanoTools imply a broad number of applications in cell biology, such as cell labeling and tracking, and future intracellular cell sensing, diagnosis and drug delivery.
