An automated proteolytic digestion bioreactor and droplet deposition system was constructed with a plastic microfluidic device for off-line interfacing to matrix assisted laser desorption/ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). The microfluidic chips were fabricated in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), using a micromilling machine and incorporated a bioreactor, which was 100 ILm wide, 100 ILm deep, and possessed a 4 cm effective channel length (400 nL volume). The chip was operated by pressure-driven flow and mounted on a robotic fraction collector system. The PMMA bioreactor contained surface immobilized trypsin, which was covalently attached to the UV-modified PMMA surface using coupling reagents N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethy1carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and hydroxysulfosuccinimide (sulfo-NHS). The digested peptides were mixed with a MALDI matrix on-chip and deposited as discrete spots on MALDI targets. The bioreactor provided efficient digestion of a test protein, cytochrome c, at a flow rate of 1 ILL/min, producing a reaction time of -24 s to give adequate sequence coverage for protein identification. Other proteins were also evaluated using this solid-phase bioreactor. The efficiency of digestion was evaluated by monitoring the sequence coverage, which was 64%, 35%, 58%, and 47% for cytochrome c,
Significant progress has been made toward the development of microchip-based technologies for proteomics through the integration of analytical processes into platforms that can provide rapid identification of proteins and the subsequent characterization of various post-translational modifications [1][2][3][4]. The small sample and reagent requirements, rapid analysis times, high throughput processing capabilities, and low operating costs are among the driving forces for the development of these systems [5][6][7][8]. Different microfluidic devices have been applied to specific aspects of protein processing, in particular, protein purification and separation, protein digestion, and protein identification by mass spectrometry [9].There have been a number of approaches to on-line and off-line matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) integrated to chipbased devices [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The primary advantage of the MALDI approach compared with electrospray ionization (ESI) when coupling to microfluidic chips is the potential for multiplexing [19]. The directional control Address reprint requests to Dr. Kermit K. Murray, Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, 232 Choppin Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, USA. E-mail: kkmurray@!su.edu of the ESI spray can be difficult with a high-density array of spray tips. Furthermore, microfluidic chip interfaces to ESI can suffer from stability problems when sprays are started or stopped [20,21]. This limits the speed of moving from one sample to another and therefore, limits throughput.With recent advances in analytical methods for proteomics, attention has been directed toward development of effic...