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Shahriari S, Selvaganapathy PR. Integration of hydrogels into microfluidic devices with porous membranes as scaffolds enables their drying and reconstitution. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2022; 16:054108. [PMID: 36313189 PMCID: PMC9616609 DOI: 10.1063/5.0100589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Hydrogels are a critical component of many microfluidic devices. They have been used in cell culture applications, biosensors, gradient generators, separation microdevices, micro-actuators, and microvalves. Various techniques have been utilized to integrate hydrogels into microfluidic devices such as flow confinement and gel photopolymerization. However, in these methods, hydrogels are typically introduced in post processing steps which add complexity, cost, and extensive fabrication steps to the integration process and can be prone to user induced variations. Here, we introduce an inexpensive method to locally integrate hydrogels into microfluidic devices during the fabrication process without the need for post-processing. In this method, porous and fibrous membranes such as electrospun membranes are used as scaffolds to hold gels and they are patterned using xurography. Hydrogels in various shapes as small as 200 μm can be patterned using this method in a scalable manner. The electrospun scaffold facilitates drying and reconstitution of these gels without loss of shape or leakage that is beneficial in a number of applications. Such reconstitution is not feasible using other hydrogel integration techniques. Therefore, this method is suitable for long time storage of hydrogels in devices which is useful in point-of-care (POC) devices. This hydrogel integration method was used to demonstrate gel electrophoretic concentration and quantification of short DNA (150 bp) with different concentrations in rehydrated agarose embedded in electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) membrane. This can be developed further to create a POC device to quantify cell-free DNA, which is a prognostic biomarker for severe sepsis patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shadi Shahriari
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L7, Canada
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Ho CMB, Sun Q, Teo AJT, Wibowo D, Gao Y, Zhou J, Huang Y, Tan SH, Zhao CX. Development of a Microfluidic Droplet-Based Microbioreactor for Microbial Cultivation. ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2020; 6:3630-3637. [DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.0c00292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Chee Meng Benjamin Ho
- Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
| | - Qi Sun
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Adrian J. T. Teo
- Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
| | - David Wibowo
- Centre for Cell Factories and Biopolymers, Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
| | - Yongsheng Gao
- School of Engineering, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
| | - Jun Zhou
- School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
| | - Yanyi Huang
- Department of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, College of Engineering, Peking University, 100084 Beijing, China
| | - Say Hwa Tan
- Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
| | - Chun-Xia Zhao
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
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Bai Y, Gao M, Wen L, He C, Chen Y, Liu C, Fu X, Huang S. Applications of Microfluidics in Quantitative Biology. Biotechnol J 2017; 13:e1700170. [PMID: 28976637 DOI: 10.1002/biot.201700170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2017] [Revised: 09/03/2017] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Quantitative biology is dedicated to taking advantage of quantitative reasoning and advanced engineering technologies to make biology more predictable. Microfluidics, as an emerging technique, provides new approaches to precisely control fluidic conditions on small scales and collect data in high-throughput and quantitative manners. In this review, the authors present the relevant applications of microfluidics to quantitative biology based on two major categories (channel-based microfluidics and droplet-based microfluidics), and their typical features. We also envision some other microfluidic techniques that may not be employed in quantitative biology right now, but have great potential in the near future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Bai
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Meng Gao
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Lingling Wen
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Caiyun He
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuan Chen
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Chenli Liu
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiongfei Fu
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
| | - Shuqiang Huang
- Center for Synthetic Biology Engineering Research, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China
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Abstract
Molecular diffusive membranes or materials are important for biological applications in microfluidic systems. Hydrogels are typical materials that offer several advantages, such as free diffusion for small molecules, biocompatibility with most cells, temperature sensitivity, relatively low cost, and ease of production. With the development of microfluidic applications, hydrogels can be integrated into microfluidic systems by soft lithography, flow-solid processes or UV cure methods. Due to their special properties, hydrogels are widely used as fluid control modules, biochemical reaction modules or biological application modules in different applications. Although hydrogels have been used in microfluidic systems for more than ten years, many hydrogels' properties and integrated techniques have not been carefully elaborated. Here, we systematically review the physical properties of hydrogels, general methods for gel-microfluidics integration and applications of this field. Advanced topics and the outlook of hydrogel fabrication and applications are also discussed. We hope this review can help researchers choose suitable methods for their applications using hydrogels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuanqi Zhang
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
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Buffi N, Beggah S, Truffer F, Geiser M, van Lintel H, Renaud P, van der Meer JR. An automated microreactor for semi-continuous biosensor measurements. LAB ON A CHIP 2016; 16:1383-1392. [PMID: 27001545 DOI: 10.1039/c6lc00119j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Living bacteria or yeast cells are frequently used as bioreporters for the detection of specific chemical analytes or conditions of sample toxicity. In particular, bacteria or yeast equipped with synthetic gene circuitry that allows the production of a reliable non-cognate signal (e.g., fluorescent protein or bioluminescence) in response to a defined target make robust and flexible analytical platforms. We report here how bacterial cells expressing a fluorescence reporter ("bactosensors"), which are mostly used for batch sample analysis, can be deployed for automated semi-continuous target analysis in a single concise biochip. Escherichia coli-based bactosensor cells were continuously grown in a 13 or 50 nanoliter-volume reactor on a two-layered polydimethylsiloxane-on-glass microfluidic chip. Physiologically active cells were directed from the nl-reactor to a dedicated sample exposure area, where they were concentrated and reacted in 40 minutes with the target chemical by localized emission of the fluorescent reporter signal. We demonstrate the functioning of the bactosensor-chip by the automated detection of 50 μgarsenite-As l(-1) in water on consecutive days and after a one-week constant operation. Best induction of the bactosensors of 6-9-fold to 50 μg l(-1) was found at an apparent dilution rate of 0.12 h(-1) in the 50 nl microreactor. The bactosensor chip principle could be widely applicable to construct automated monitoring devices for a variety of targets in different environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Buffi
- Laboratory for Microsystems Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Station 17, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Siham Beggah
- Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Frederic Truffer
- Institute of Systems Engineering, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Martial Geiser
- Institute of Systems Engineering, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Harald van Lintel
- Laboratory for Microsystems Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Station 17, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Philippe Renaud
- Laboratory for Microsystems Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Station 17, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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WEN XX, XU BL, WANG WX, LIANG GT, CHEN B, YANG YM, LIU DY. Rapid Identification of Multiple Bacteria on a Microfluidic Chip. CHINESE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/s1872-2040(13)60737-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Park J, Wu J, Polymenis M, Han A. Microchemostat array with small-volume fraction replenishment for steady-state microbial culture. LAB ON A CHIP 2013; 13:4217-4224. [PMID: 23986263 DOI: 10.1039/c3lc50665g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
A chemostat is a bioreactor in which microorganisms can be cultured at steady-state by controlling the rate of culture medium inflow and waste outflow, thus maintaining media composition over time. Even though many microbial studies could greatly benefit from studying microbes in steady-state conditions, high instrument cost, complexity, and large reagent consumption hamper the routine use of chemostats. Microfluidic-based chemostats (i.e. microchemostats) can operate with significantly smaller reagent consumption while providing accurate chemostatic conditions at orders of magnitude lower cost compared to conventional chemostats. Also, microchemostats have the potential to significantly increase the throughput by integrating arrays of microchemostats. We present a microchemostat array with a unique two-depth culture chamber design that enables small-volume fraction replenishment of culture medium as low as 1% per replenishment cycle in a 250 nl volume. A system having an array of 8 microchemostats on a 40 × 60 mm(2) footprint could be automatically operated in parallel by a single controller unit as a demonstration for potential high throughput microbial studies. The model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, successfully reached a stable steady-state of different cell densities as a demonstration of the chemostatic functionality by programming the dilution rates. Chemostatic functionality of the system was further confirmed by quantifying the budding index as a function of dilution rate, a strong indicator of growth-dependent cell division. In addition, the small-volume fraction replenishment feature minimized the cell density fluctuation during the culture. The developed system provides a robust, low-cost, and higher throughput solution to furthering studies in microbial physiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaewon Park
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
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Abstract
Micro- and nanoscale technologies have radically transformed biological research from genomics to tissue engineering, with the relative exception of microbial cell culture, which is still largely performed in microtiter plates and petri dishes. Here, we present nanoscale culture of the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans on a microarray platform. The microarray consists of 1,200 individual cultures of 30 nl of C. albicans biofilms (“nano-biofilms”) encapsulated in an inert alginate matrix. We demonstrate that these nano-biofilms are similar to conventional macroscopic biofilms in their morphological, architectural, growth, and phenotypic characteristics. We also demonstrate that the nano-biofilm microarray is a robust and efficient tool for accelerating the drug discovery process: (i) combinatorial screening against a collection of 28 antifungal compounds in the presence of immunosuppressant FK506 (tacrolimus) identified six drugs that showed synergistic antifungal activity, and (ii) screening against the NCI challenge set small-molecule library identified three heretofore-unknown hits. This cell-based microarray platform allows for miniaturization of microbial cell culture and is fully compatible with other high-throughput screening technologies. Microorganisms are typically still grown in petri dishes, test tubes, and Erlenmeyer flasks in spite of the latest advances in miniaturization that have benefitted other allied research fields, including genomics and proteomics. Culturing microorganisms in small scale can be particularly valuable in cutting down time, cost, and reagent usage. This paper describes the development, characterization, and application of nanoscale culture of an opportunistic fungal pathogen, Candida albicans. Despite a more than 2,000-fold reduction in volume, the growth characteristics and drug response profiles obtained from the nanoscale cultures were comparable to the industry standards. The platform also enabled rapid identification of new drug candidates that were effective against C. albicans biofilms, which are a major cause of mortality in hospital-acquired infections.
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Hegab HM, Elmekawy A, Stakenborg T. Review of microfluidic microbioreactor technology for high-throughput submerged microbiological cultivation. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2013; 7:21502. [PMID: 24404006 PMCID: PMC3631267 DOI: 10.1063/1.4799966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2012] [Accepted: 03/22/2013] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Microbial fermentation process development is pursuing a high production yield. This requires a high throughput screening and optimization of the microbial strains, which is nowadays commonly achieved by applying slow and labor-intensive submerged cultivation in shake flasks or microtiter plates. These methods are also limited towards end-point measurements, low analytical data output, and control over the fermentation process. These drawbacks could be overcome by means of scaled-down microfluidic microbioreactors (μBR) that allow for online control over cultivation data and automation, hence reducing cost and time. This review goes beyond previous work not only by providing a detailed update on the current μBR fabrication techniques but also the operation and control of μBRs is compared to large scale fermentation reactors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanaa M Hegab
- KACST-Intel Consortium Center of Excellence in Nano-Manufacturing Applications (CENA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, Leuven, Belgium ; Institute of Advanced Technology and New Materials, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Borg Elarab, Alexandria, Egypt
| | - Ahmed Elmekawy
- Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute, Minufiya University, Sadat City, Egypt
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Wang L, Liu J, Li X, Shi J, Hu J, Cui R, Zhang ZL, Pang DW, Chen Y. Growth propagation of yeast in linear arrays of microfluidic chambers over many generations. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2011; 5:44118-441189. [PMID: 22662064 PMCID: PMC3364811 DOI: 10.1063/1.3668243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2011] [Accepted: 11/17/2011] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
The growth of microorganisms is often confined in restricting geometries. In this work, we designed a device to study the growth propagation of budding yeast along linear arrays of microfluidic chambers. Vacuum assisted cell loading was used to seed cells of limited numbers in the up-most chambers of each linear array. Once loaded, cells grow until confluent and then overgrow, pushing some of the newborns into the neighboring downstream chamber through connection channels. Such a scenario repeats sequentially along the whole linear chamber arrays. We observed that the propagation speed of yeast population along the linear arrays was strongly channel geometry dependent. When the connection channel is narrow and long, the amount of cells delivered into the downstream chamber is small so that cells grow over several generations in the same chamber before passing into the next chamber. Consequently, a population growth of more than 50 generations could be observed along a single linear array. We also provided a mathematical model to quantitatively interpret the observed growth dynamics.
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Lee KS, Boccazzi P, Sinskey AJ, Ram RJ. Microfluidic chemostat and turbidostat with flow rate, oxygen, and temperature control for dynamic continuous culture. LAB ON A CHIP 2011; 11:1730-9. [PMID: 21445442 DOI: 10.1039/c1lc20019d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
This work reports on an instrument capable of supporting automated microscale continuous culture experiments. The instrument consists of a plastic-PDMS device capable of continuous flow without volume drift or evaporation. We apply direct computer controlled machining and chemical bonding fabrication for production of fluidic devices with a 1 mL working volume, high oxygen transfer rate (k(L)a≈0.025 s(-1)), fast mixing (2 s), accurate flow control (±18 nL), and closed loop control over temperature, cell density, dissolved oxygen, and pH. Integrated peristaltic pumps and valves provide control over input concentrations and allow the system to perform different types of cell culture on a single device, such as batch, chemostat, and turbidostat continuous cultures. Continuous cultures are demonstrated without contamination for 3 weeks in a single device and both steady state and dynamically controlled conditions are possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin S Lee
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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