Passive removal of immiscible spacers from segmented flows in a microfluidic probe

Kooten, Xander F. van; Autebert, Julien; Kaigala, Govind V.

doi:10.1063/1.4913202

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Finally, the observed breakthrough pressure of 250 kPa enables this approach to be used where related work [ 10 ] would not. If the membrane port were placed at the end of a microfabricated needle, oil could be driven through the microchannel, carrying droplets at significant speeds and pressures without exceeding the breakthrough pressure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is also not capable of sequenced delivery of different chemicals. Very recently, Kaigala et al [ 10 ] showed an improved version of the vertical probe that is capable of delivering isolated chemical sequences using immiscible fluid segmentation, what could be referred to as droplets. Their device is also based on restricting fluid flow to parts of the chip by Laplace or capillary pressure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Microfluidic Droplet Extraction by Hydrophilic Membrane

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Droplet-based microfluidics are capable of transporting very small amounts of fluid over long distances. This characteristic may be applied to conventional fluid delivery using needles if droplets can be reliably expelled from a microfluidic channel. In this paper, we demonstrate a system for the extraction of water droplets from an oil-phase in a polymer microfluidic device. A hydrophilic membrane with a strong preference for water over oil is integrated into a droplet microfluidic system and observed to allow the passage of the transported aqueous phase droplets while blocking the continuous phase. The oil breakthrough pressure of the membrane was observed to be 250 ± 20 kPa, a much greater pressure than anywhere within the microfluidic channel, thereby eliminating the possibility that oil will leak from the microchannel, a critical parameter if droplet transport is to be used in needle-based drug delivery.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfluidic Droplet Extraction by Hydrophilic Membrane

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The scanning capability of the probe 36 allows the patterning on large surfaces, typically in the centimeter range, with the possibility of creating arrays of up to 30 000 spots/cm 2 with a spot size of 10 × 10 μm 2 . Third, the capacity of the MFP to rapidly switch liquids 37 on top of the substrate makes it a relevant tool for implementing complex biochemistries requiring multiple consecutive chemicals to be dispensed on the surface or even for manufacturing protein microarrays.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convection-Enhanced Biopatterning with Recirculation of Hydrodynamically Confined Nanoliter Volumes of Reagents

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a new methodology for efficient and high-quality patterning of biological reagents for surface-based biological assays. The method relies on hydrodynamically confined nanoliter volumes of reagents to interact with the substrate at the micrometer-length scale. We study the interplay between diffusion, advection, and surface chemistry and present the design of a noncontact scanning microfluidic device to efficiently present reagents on surfaces. By leveraging convective flows, recirculation, and mixing of a processing liquid, this device overcomes limitations of existing biopatterning approaches, such as passive diffusion of analytes, uncontrolled wetting, and drying artifacts. We demonstrate the deposition of analytes, showing a 2- to 5-fold increase in deposition rate together with a 10-fold reduction in analyte consumption while ensuring less than 6% variation in pattern homogeneity on a standard biological substrate. In addition, we demonstrate the recirculation of a processing liquid using a microfluidic probe (MFP) in the context of a surface assay for (i) probing 12 independent areas with a single microliter of processing liquid and (ii) processing a 2 mm2 surface to create 170 antibody spots of 50 × 100 μm2 area using 1.6 μL of liquid. We observe high pattern quality, conservative usage of reagents, micrometer precision of localization and convection-enhanced fast deposition. Such a device and method may facilitate quantitative biological assays and spur the development of the next generation of protein microarrays.

show abstract

“…This could be done by the controlled insertion and removal of immiscible spacers, thereby minimizing Taylor dispersion. 29 Moreover, we believe it is conceivable to integrate the methods presented with techniques to perform local temperature alterations 30 to assist in performing efficient chemical reactions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Centimeter-Scale Surface Interactions Using Hydrodynamic Flow Confinements

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a device and method for selective chemical interactions with immersed substrates at the centimeter-scale. Our implementations enable both, sequential and simultaneous delivery of multiple reagents to a substrate, as well as the creation of gradients of reagents on surfaces. The method is based on localizing submicroliter volumes of liquids on an immersed surface with a microfluidic probe (MFP) using a principle termed hydrodynamic flow confinement (HFC). We here show spatially defined, multiplexed surface interactions while benefiting from the probe capabilities such as non-contact scanning operation and convection-enhanced reaction kinetics. Three-layer glass-Si-glass probes were developed to implement slit-aperture and aperture-array designs. Analytical and numerical analysis helped to establish probe designs and operating parameters. Using these probes, we performed immunohistochemical analysis on individual cores of a human breast-cancer tissue microarray. We applied α-p53 antibodies on a 2 mm diameter core within 2.5 min using a slit-aperture probe (HFC dimension: 0.3 mm × 1.2 mm). Further, multiplexed treatment of a tissue core with α-p53 and α–β-actin antibodies was performed using four adjacent HFCs created with an aperture-array probe (HFC dimension: 4 × 0.3 mm × 0.25 mm). The ability of these devices and methods to perform multiplexed assays, present sequentially different liquids on surfaces, and interact with surfaces at the centimeter-scale will likely spur new and efficient surface assays.

show abstract

Passive removal of immiscible spacers from segmented flows in a microfluidic probe

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Microfluidic Droplet Extraction by Hydrophilic Membrane

Microfluidic Droplet Extraction by Hydrophilic Membrane

Convection-Enhanced Biopatterning with Recirculation of Hydrodynamically Confined Nanoliter Volumes of Reagents

Centimeter-Scale Surface Interactions Using Hydrodynamic Flow Confinements

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About