傳統上的細胞研究通常是針對一群的細胞觀察其行為或是對某些化學物質的反應後，取平均值來作為此種細胞的特性；但隨著科技的進步，科學家們發現細胞和人一樣，群體化的觀察只能得到一個客觀的現象，若將每個細胞獨立培養，其行為表象會與群聚培養時有很大的不同。因此，為了對細胞的行為有更深入的研究，觀察單一細胞的行為和對藥物的反應，逐漸成為現今的研究趨勢。
微液珠技術可以將細胞或生化物質包裹於微升或奈升的液珠中，用以觀察及操控。若適當地與其他系統整合，則可擴大其應用範圍，包括物質混合、對細胞的篩檢、藥物檢測以及細胞培養觀察等。由於生成微液珠的微流道尺寸非常小，微液珠所需的檢體量或藥劑量相較傳統減少許多，即在有限的成本及藥品內，利用微液珠技術能夠進行更多次甚至更多元的實驗，且產生的實驗相關廢液也同樣減少。
目前已有許多研究利用微液珠技術生成包裹單一細胞的液珠，進行對單一細胞的觀察，但在生成液珠時，細胞的包裹率會呈現布瓦松分布(Poisson distribution)，即使細胞濃度再高，也會產生一定程度的空液珠。因此本研究提出一個想法，希望可以設計一個晶片，在生成液珠後對液珠進行篩選，根據液珠中所包裹細胞的數目進行分類。
本研究成功地利用介電泳方式使液珠和包裹有乳膠粒子的液珠在移動路徑上有所區別，但目前區別仍不足以將兩者分離，未來將會改變電極設計，強化其差異性，以期能夠將多種液珠一次分性分離。

Conventionally, we studied the reaction of a group of cell to a certain stimulation and define it as the behaviour of the cell line. However, with the rapid development of technology, scientists had discovered that the behaviour of a single cell could be dramatically different from that of a cell cultured in a group. As a result, more and more researches nowadays focus on the study of single cell.
Microfluidics is a promising platform for research in objects of micro- or nano- scale. It could be integrated with other electrical, mechanical, or optical systems for the use in research, such as cell sorting, cell isolation, drug screening, and mixing.
Scientists have been isolating single cell in droplets with microfluidics for years. However, owing to Poisson statistics, there is still a certain amount of empty droplets. Thus, we proposed a design to increase the efficiency of isolating single cell. We encapsulate cells in droplets and then manipulate these droplets with dielectrophoresis based on the number of cells encapsulating. We have observed the difference in deflection between empty droplets and droplets encapsulating bead. Still, we are working on enhancing the efficiency of manipulation

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