Editorial [Hot Topic: Synergistic Development of Microfluidic Systems and Cellomics (Guest Editor: Giuseppina Simone)]

For decades, the scientists have been trying to solve the intricate questions of the biology and the human science by reaching successful results. Although many questions are still open and one of the main reasons is the inadequate methods that biologists and biochemists have available. To date a snapshot of the actual scientific world shows a huge gap between biology and technology and a strong difficulty in talking, due to the different background and language. However, even if slowly, the scenario is progressively changing and part of the scientific community, albeit small, is promoting the interdisciplinary interaction between biological and technological world. To understand biology, where still complexity is unrevealed, it is urgent to understand and to aware that novel and intricate technologies are needed. In fact, even if it is clear that biology requires that even more complex and exciting questions are solved, sometimes the biologists are unfamiliar with what could be out there to help answer, whilst, usually, such technologies are developed by people who have not in depth knowledge of biological problems. The efforts of those developing key technologies are not optimal when they are not supported by an interdisciplinary knowledge of the biological problem space. Micro total analysis systems seem to be one of the most useful tools for supporting the biological research and several commercial systems are based on microfluidic principles to perform routinely analysis. There are several reasons why microfluidic systems are so important for biology. First, as widely shown, the size of such systems allows scaling down of the process parameters with clear advantages in terms of the characteristic time and efficiency of the analysis. Secondly, high precision control of small volumes of sample makes these systems particularly useful when it is necessary to interrogate biological samples. Finally, microfluidic systems allow the microenvironment where biological samples, especially cells, normally live to be mimicked. Microfluidic systems allow the micro- and nano-topology of the systems to be finally tailored. To be effective, care needs to be taken that the developed microfluidic system designed to mimic the in vivo conditions does not modify the phenotype and genotype of the cells. The potential for microfluidic science to answer key biological questions is the most exciting development since its first applications 20 years ago in analytical chemistry. The most authoritative examples of the success include (i) the potential to grow tissue from human cells inside the microfluidic systems with stimulation able to mimic the in vivo conditions, (ii) isolation and screening of circulating tumor cells with a dual advantage of diagnosis and prognosis, and (iii) interrogation of cells for the screening of small chemical molecules. My own view is that most of the important open questions of life need to be solved by models and systems that allow simultaneously to simplify the complexity of the in vivo studies and to keep invariant the surrounding conditions. Microfluidic systems can be an aid to develop such models. The content of this issue exemplifies some of what it is intended to achieve in terms of synergic collaboration between biology and technology. • Microfabrication of microfluidic systems- Specific application realized for responding to the needs of cells and for cell culturing in mimetic bioenviroment. • Standard Operations- Identification of tumor cells behavior and interaction in controlled biochemical environment. • Application- A patch clamp based chip for neuronal cell interrogation.