Title :
Control of concentration and volume gradients in microfluidic droplet arrays for protein crystallization screening
Author :
Chao, Wen-Chi ; Collins, John ; Wang, Szu-Wen ; Li, G.P. ; Bachman, Mark ; Lee, Abraham P.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Irvine, CA, USA
Abstract :
A novel screening platform for the screening and optimization of protein crystallization is reported. Here we present two key experiments to generate protein crystallization phase diagrams. One is to precisely generate spatial gradient droplet arrays; the other is to trap and identify each droplet in place in order to carry out temporal and spatial analysis. The generated concentration and volume gradient ranges from 0% to 100% and from 155 to 310 pico liters, respectively. Furthermore, the active trapping of a droplet array in a microfluidic chip for hours to days to study the dynamic phase changes in protein crystallization is demonstrated. This microfluidic platform can be used for rapidly generating the solubility diagram for protein in various salt solutions.
Keywords :
biochemistry; biological techniques; crystallisation; microfluidics; phase diagrams; proteins; spatiotemporal phenomena; active trapping; concentration control; dynamic phase change; microfluidic chip; microfluidic droplet arrays; protein crystallization phase diagram; protein crystallization screening; salt solution; solubility diagram; spatial gradient droplet array; temporal-spatial analysis; volume gradients; Crystallization; Microfluidics; Phased arrays; Polymers; Proteins; Pumps; Surface treatment; System testing; Throughput; Valves; Microfluidics; droplet arrays; screenings;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2004. IEMBS '04. 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8439-3
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.2004.1403753
