Single cells in confined volumes: microchambers and microdroplets

Understanding the relationship between liquid manipulation and micro‐/nanostructured interfaces has gained much attention due to the wide potential applications in many fields, such as chemical and biomedical assays, environmental protection, industry, and even daily life. Much work has been done to construct various materials with interfacial liquid manipulation abilities, leading to a range of interesting applications. Herein, different fabrication methods from the top‐down approach to the bottom‐up approach and subsequent surface modifications of micro‐/nanostructured interfaces are first introduced. Then, interactions between the surface and liquid, including liquid wetting, liquid transportation, and a number of corresponding models, together with the definition of hydrophilic/hydrophobic, oleophilic/olephobic, the definition and mechanism of superwetting, including superhydrophobicity, superhydrophilicity, and superoleophobicity, are presented. The micro‐/nanostructured interface, with major applications in self‐cleaning, antifogging, anti‐icing, anticorrosion, drag‐reduction, oil–water separation, water collection, droplet (micro)array, and surface‐directed liquid transport, is summarized, and the mechanisms underlying each application are discussed. Finally, the remaining challenges and future perspectives in this area are included.

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“…SPW had also been widely adopted in cell culture, analysis, and related drug screening . Levkin group conducted many related researches .…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SPW had also been widely adopted in cell culture, analysis, [269,[283][284][285][286][287] and related drug screening. [288][289][290] Levkin group conducted many related researches. [269,283,285,[291][292][293][294] For example, they proposed a droplet-array sandwich chip based on superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic micropatterning.…”

Section: Droplet (Micro)arraymentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro‐/Nanostructured Interface for Liquid Manipulation and Its Applications

Duan

Zheng

Zhao

et al. 2019

Small

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“…Recently, microfluidic devices have been used to generate water‐in‐oil (w/o) droplets that provide in vitro compartmentalization (IVC) to mimic cell compartments . Co‐encapsulating single cells and substrate molecules within these droplets provides a means of linking genotype and phenotype for chemical reactions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐Throughput Measurement of Small‐Molecule Enantiopurity by Using Flow Cytometry

Tan

Heemstra

2018

ChemBioChem

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Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) offers a powerful approach to high-throughput library screening in directed evolution experiments. However, FACS is rarely used in the evolution of stereoselective enzymes, due to the difficulty of designing fluorescence-based assays for measuring enantiopurity. Here, we describe a new FACS-based enantiopurity analysis approach that overcomes these limitations by using enantiomeric DNA biosensors labeled with orthogonal fluorophores. By co-encapsulating the biosensors with a mixture of target enantiomers in microfluidic droplets, we could demonstrate the use of FACS to differentiate between droplets having various levels of target enantiopurity. We envision the utility of this method for high-throughput screening of enantiopurity in the directed evolution of stereoselective enzymes, thereby facilitating the discovery of new asymmetric biocatalysts for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other high-value chemicals.

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“…Development of various microfluidic devices has revolutionized the area of cell analysis, separation, and cultivation in many fields of biotechnology in the past two decades due to the single-cell resolution and high-throughput capabilities of such systems [24][25][26]. The application of these powerful technologies has recently been missed in various microalgae biotechnology fields [27,28].…”

Section: Dep Technology For Cell Population Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Separation, Characterization, and Handling of Microalgae by Dielectrophoresis

et al. 2020

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Microalgae biotechnology has a high potential for sustainable bioproduction of diverse high-value biomolecules. Some of the main bottlenecks in cell-based bioproduction, and more specifically in microalgae-based bioproduction, are due to insufficient methods for rapid and efficient cell characterization, which contributes to having only a few industrially established microalgal species in commercial use. Dielectrophoresis-based microfluidic devices have been long established as promising tools for label-free handling, characterization, and separation of broad ranges of cells. The technique is based on differences in dielectric properties and sizes, which results in different degrees of cell movement under an applied inhomogeneous electrical field. The method has also earned interest for separating microalgae based on their intrinsic properties, since their dielectric properties may significantly change during bioproduction, in particular for lipid-producing species. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of dielectrophoresis-based microfluidic devices that are used for handling, characterization, and separation of microalgae. Additionally, we provide a perspective on related areas of research in cell-based bioproduction that can benefit from dielectrophoresis-based microdevices. This work provides key information that will be useful for microalgae researchers to decide whether dielectrophoresis and which method is most suitable for their particular application.

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Single cells in confined volumes: microchambers and microdroplets

Cited by 86 publications

References 155 publications

Micro‐/Nanostructured Interface for Liquid Manipulation and Its Applications

Micro‐/Nanostructured Interface for Liquid Manipulation and Its Applications

High‐Throughput Measurement of Small‐Molecule Enantiopurity by Using Flow Cytometry

Separation, Characterization, and Handling of Microalgae by Dielectrophoresis

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