Microfluidic single‐cell technologies for immunotherapeutic target discovery: From design concepts to preclinical applications

Abstract Immunotherapy, which modulates the patient's immune system to treat diseases, has revolutionized cancer therapy and is now being explored for autoimmune diseases. However, cellular heterogeneity in the immune system, tumor microenvironment, and inflamed tissues poses a major challenge to the efficacy of immunotherapies. This complexity underscores the need for a deeper understanding of disease mechanisms at single‐cell resolution. In recent years, microfluidic technologies have played a key role in enabling single‐cell analysis at transcriptomic and proteomic levels, leading to the discovery of new biomarkers for immunotherapy. In this review, we summarize the state‐of‐the‐art microfluidic platforms used for single‐cell omics, focusing on their conceptual principles and practical designs. We also briefly summarize the applications of microfluidic devices in the preclinical process of immunotherapeutic target discovery.