Microfluidic cartridges preloaded with nanoliter plugs of reagents: an alternative to 96-well plates for screening

• Published in: Current opinion in chemical biology Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 226 - 231
• Main Authors: Chen, Delai L, Ismagilov, Rustem F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2006
• Subjects: Chemical Precipitation; Crystallization; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Indicators and Reagents - chemistry; Microfluidics; Nanotechnology; Proteins - chemistry; Spectrometry, Fluorescence; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
• ISSN: 1367-5931; 1879-0402
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2006.04.004

In traditional screening with 96-well plates, microliters of substrates are consumed for each reaction. Further miniaturization is limited by the special equipment and techniques required to dispense nanoliter volumes of fluid. Plug-based microfluidics confines reagents in nanoliter plugs (droplets surrounded by fluorinated carrier fluid), and uses simple pumps to control the flow of plugs. By using cartridges pre-loaded with nanoliter plugs of reagents, only two pumps and a merging junction are needed to set up a screen. Screening with preloaded cartridges uses only nanoliters of substrate per reaction, and requires no microfabrication. The low cost and simplicity of this method has the potential of replacing 96-well and other multi-well plates, and has been applied to enzymatic assays, protein crystallization and optimization of organic reactions.