We believe that fancy technology is not very useful if it cannot be easily and reliably operated by the end user. To this end, we have implemented a number of intuitive user-friendly features into the ONIX system. The overall effect is to eliminate the headaches and tedium associated with the "early days" of microfluidic bio-devices. This worry-free operation is especially important for live cell imaging experiments, where one is often working with very expensive microscopes and every minute counts.

Pneumatic pressure driven flow- Our air pressure driven system eliminates the most common bottlenecks of microfluidic experiments. By taking the syringe pump and liquid-filled tubing out of the equation, we successfully eliminated bubble introduction, medium contamination, manual connections, and buildup of back pressure. This also enables rapid switching between multiple inlets and a "scale-independent" driving force suitable for ultra-low flow rate control. The air pressure flow allows all sample solutions (media, cells, etc.) to be housed on the microfluidic plate, and the upstream lines are never "wetted" by your samples.

Intuitive control software- With a few clicks of a mouse, you can easily modulate pressures and turn on/off different flow lines. The single USB connector to any computer cannot be any simpler. In addition, a straightforward text based command set allows any user to program their own time-varying flow programs.

"One touch" manifold to plate sealing- We designed our low profile pneumatic manifold to sit directly on top of the microfluidic plate to make it easy to adapt to any inverted microscope stage. The control apparatus is linked via air lines up to 2 meters away, saving precious microscope space. The plate/manifold assembly is held together by a vacuum mechanism, and takes only 1-2 seconds to secure. In addition, the assembly is fully transparent to aid in microscope navigation.

Internal pressure/vacuum tanks- The control system contains its own pressure/vacuum supply to enable flow control in any setting. This also makes the system easily portable from one microscope to another.

#1.5 thickness glass imaging surface- The cells are cultured directly on a 170 micron thick cover glass formulated for high magnification microscopy. This ensures the optimal image quality with your high end objective lenses.

Sterile, pre-primed, disposable plates- Our microfluidic plates are designed to generate the highest quality results at a very low price. When you receive the plates, they are "ready-to-go." Simply pipet in your cells and sample solutions and begin your experiment.