Microfluidics has the potential to revolutionize cell biology. In particular, neurobiologists have found microfluidics capable of providing solutions to many methodological challenges. The number of device designs and applications is increasing rapidly, and microfluidic techniques are likely to be adopted widely by the neuroscience community in the near future. Integrated designs using combination of microfluidic chips with MEA, optogenetics and various types of biosensors (real-time detection of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides etc.) is expected to take these emerging on-chip technologies to new heights. Moreover, microfluidic devices are increasingly used with brain slices and could also provide great opportunities as scaffolds to develop implantable neural interfaces. Finally, utilization of the third growth dimension will provide another future direction to this new field of neurofluidics.
