Figure 2: Partipetting-based heterogeneous cell staining.

(a) Schematic diagram of the chemical substance release process. Particle chip and cell chip for heterogeneous cell staining. Cell-staining dyes (red and green CT) are loaded into the photopolymerized poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEG-DA) particles. The particle chip and the cell chip are aligned and combined face-to-face to facilitate the release of chemical substances. Target cells in the cell chip react with the chemicals released from the particle chip. The chemicals are released by diffusion through the contact surface between an ECM and cell culture medium. The mineral oil layer from the particle chip prevents the cross-contamination of chemicals (Supplementary Fig. 6). (b) Image of a particle chip. Encoded microparticles are assembled in a particle chip. Each microwell in a particle chip has a diameter of 200 μm and a depth of 60 μm. (c) Image of a cell chip. A cell chip is filled with seeded cells. Each microwell has a diameter of 500 μm and a depth of 300 μm. (d) Fluorescence image of cells heterogeneously stained via partipetting. Scale bars, 300 μm.