Droplet-Based Microfluidics: Enabling Impact on Drug Discovery

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the application of microengineered systems in the chemical and biological sciences has transformed the way in which high-throughput experimentation is performed. The ability to fabricate complex microfluidic architectures has allowed scientists to create new experimental formats for processing ultra-small analytical volumes in short periods and with high efficiency. The development of such microfluidic systems has been driven by a range of fundamental features that accompany miniaturization. These include the ability to handle small sample volumes, ultra-low fabrication costs, reduced analysis times, enhanced operational flexibility, facile automation, and the ability to integrate functional components within complex analytical schemes. Herein we discuss the impact of microfluidics in the area of high-throughput screening and drug discovery and highlight some of the most pertinent studies in the recent literature.

Recent Advances in Applications of Droplet Microfluidics

“…Observing the particle size and concentration of fluorescent nanoparticles can clarify the nature of such particles in complex media. Many studies have used fluorescence to sort droplets or probe droplet-based microfluidic systems in high throughput [9]. For the biodistribution of microparticles in vivo, determining which organ or tissue traps the microparticles depends on the size, whereas determining the uptake efficiency depends on the uniformity [58].…”

“…For example, they can be applied in polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based analyses, enzyme kinetics and protein crystallization studies, cell cultures, functional component encapsulation, and small molecule and polymeric particle synthesis [10][11][12][13][14][15]. The fundamental features of these droplet-based microfluidic platforms with high-level integration include fine control of small sample volumes, reduced amounts of reagents and samples, reduced analysis times, improved sensitivity, lowered detection limits, increased high-throughput screening, enhanced operational flexibility [9].…”

“…In contrast to that in macroscale channels, the capillary force in microchannels dominates the inertial effects, and capillary action dramatically alters system behavior. For obtaining fine control over the size and shape of droplets, several active and passive methods involving various techniques have been proposed [8,9]. As shown in Figure 2, droplet microfluidics is a rapidly growing field, and the number of publications (according to ISI Web of Knowledge) has increased substantially since 2010.…”

Droplet Merging on a Lab-on-a-Chip Platform by Uniform Magnetic Fields

“…Specifically, droplet merging and mixing on LoC platform has been used for a broad range of biomedical applications17 such as bioassays1819, biomaterials20, single cell analysis21, cell sorting2223, population transcriptomics24, disease detection25, and diagnostics26. Merging and mixing of droplets on a LoC platform can also lead to miniaturized volume conditions (nl to pl), reduced operation time and several fold increase in screening of chemical reactions27, which opens a new domain of DMF chemistry2829, drug discovery applications303132, high-throughput molecular genetics33, interfacial studies34 and ‘on water reaction’35.…”

Precision moulding of biomimetic disposable chips for droplet-based applications

“…However, despite the huge potential of droplet-based microfluidics and the continuously growing number of publications in this field (Dressler et al 2014), most studies only present proof-of-concepts (Casadevall i Solvas and deMello 2011; Volpatti and Yetisen 2014). One reason for this limited transferability to commercial/industrial applications is the restricted availability of disposable polymer chips that allow for a stable and reproducible droplet generation of challenging biologically relevant fluids with a high protein content (Shembekar et al 2016).…”