| Section |
Check (Tick) |
Prompt/Decision |
Notes |
| Define the experiment clock |
|
What is your on-chip time zero (flow start, gradient start, dosing start)? |
|
| Readout sensitivity |
|
Are you measuring early/dynamic responses (24–72h) or long-run outcomes (weeks)? |
|
| Spatial readouts |
|
Do you need mosaicism / internal neighbour controls to interpret gradients or boundaries? |
|
| Uniformity requirement |
|
Do you require near-uniform perturbation across most cells for bulk endpoints? |
|
| Stability requirement |
|
Do you need stable reporters/inducibles across multi-week perfusion? |
|
| Closed microfluidics constraints |
|
Will any genetic delivery occur inside channels/tubing/recirculation loops? |
|
| Payload constraints |
|
Is your payload large or multi-component (multiple guides/reporters/sensors)? |
|
| Biosafety / ops |
|
Do you have biosafety approvals and vector production/QC capacity (if viral is needed)? |
|
| Throughput plan |
|
Will you test many chip conditions (flow × ECM × dosing × co-culture) from one perturbation step? |
|
| QC outputs |
|
What is your go/no-go after run #1 (viability, architecture, flow response, phenotype timing)? |
|
| Decision |
|
Default strategy: NEPA21 first for discovery → “graduate” to viral only if stability/uniformity is required. |
|