Microfluidic droplet detection using synthetic data generated by a Generative Adversarial Network

Abstract

Cellular heterogeneity, even among genetically identical cells, results in variations in their properties and behaviors, making single-cell analysis crucial for obtaining detailed insights. However, isolating single cells from a cell population poses major challenges, as conventional laboratory techniques often risk cell damage and involve complex procedures. Droplet microfluidics has emerged as a promising approach for encapsulating cells, particularly single cells, into individual droplets without causing harm. Despite this, factors like cell sedimentation and aggregation can reduce encapsulation efficiency and lead to deviations from the expected Poisson distribution. To address these challenges, leveraging artificial intelligence and deep learning to monitor, detect, and regulate encapsulation conditions in real-time is critical for enhancing system performance. However, deep learning models require substantial training data, and issues like microfluidic channel clogging and the scarcity of certain cell types often limit data availability. To overcome this limitation, researchers are turning to synthetic data generation to supplement training datasets and address data scarcity challenges effectively. This study emphasizes the potential of integrating synthetic data with cutting-edge deep learning techniques to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of single-cell analysis within droplet microfluidic systems. A diverse dataset integrating synthetic and real images was used to train the YOLOv8s model for automated detection and classification of microfluidic droplets, enhancing accuracy and system performance. The model trained on a combination of real and synthetic data outperformed the one trained using conventional data augmentation methods, achieving an mAP0.5 of 98% due to the increased diversity of training images. It also demonstrated faster and more stable training. Additionally, the YOLOv8 network, with a detection rate of approximately 2338 droplets per second, significantly improved processing speed compared to earlier YOLO versions. © 2025