Measurement of enzyme kinetics using a continuous-flow microfluidic system

Protocell Flow Reactors for Enzyme and Whole-Cell Mediated Biocatalysis

The design and construction of continuous flow biochemical reactors comprising immobilized biocatalysts have generated great interest in the efficient synthesis of value-added chemicals. Living cells use compartmentalization and reaction-diffusion processes for spatiotemporal regulation of biocatalytic reactions, and implementing these strategies into continuous flow reactors can offer new opportunities in reactor design and application. Herein, the fabrication of protocell-based continuous flow reactors for enzyme and whole-cell mediated biocatalysis is demonstrated. Semipermeable membranized coacervate vesicles are employed as model protocells that spontaneously sequester enzymes or accumulate living bacteria to produce embodied microreactors capable of single- or multiple-step catalytic reactions. By packing millions of the enzyme/bacteria-containing coacervate vesicles in a glass column, a facile, cost-effective, and modular methodology capable of performing oxidoreductase, peroxidase and lipolytic reactions, enzyme-mediated L-DOPA synthesis, and whole-cell glycolysis under continuous flow conditions, is demonstrated. It is shown that the protocell-nested enzymes and bacterial cells exhibit enhanced activities and stability under deleterious operating conditions compared with their non-encapsulated counterparts. These results provide a step toward the engineering of continuous flow reactors based on cell-like microscale agents and offer opportunities in the development of green and sustainable industrial bioprocessing.

Biocatalytic Performance of β-Glucosidase Immobilized on 3D-Printed Single- and Multi-Channel Polylactic Acid Microreactors

Microfluidic devices have attracted much attention in the current day owing to the unique advantages they provide. However, their application for industrial use is limited due to manufacturing limitations and high cost. Moreover, the scaling-up process of the microreactor has proven to be difficult. Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is a promising solution for the above obstacles due to its ability to fabricate complex structures quickly and at a relatively low cost. Hence, combining the advantages of the microscale with 3D printing technology could enhance the applicability of microfluidic devices in the industrial sector. In the present work, a 3D-printed single-channel immobilized enzyme microreactor with a volume capacity of 30 μL was designed and created in one step via the fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing technique, using polylactic acid (PLA) as the printing material. The microreactor underwent surface modification with chitosan, and β-glucosidase from Thermotoga maritima was covalently immobilized. The immobilized biocatalyst retained almost 100% of its initial activity after incubation at different temperatures, while it could be effectively reused for up to 10 successful reaction cycles. Moreover, a multi-channel parallel microreactor incorporating 36 channels was developed, resulting in a significant increase in enzymatic productivity.

Assessing Aptamer-Analyte Binding Kinetics by Microfluidic Fluorescence Microscopy

Kinetic measurement plays a crucial role in understanding aptamer binding mechanisms and identifying appropriate aptamers for clinical and research applications. Current techniques, while well established, generally require large sample volumes, bulky and expensive instruments operated by trained personnel, and are hence not readily accessible to resource-limited research laboratories. This paper presents a fluorescence microscopy-based microfluidic assay for measuring aptamer-analyte binding kinetics in a simple and cost-effective manner. Kinetic measurements are achieved by monitoring time-course fluorescence of fluorescently labeled aptamers as they bind to the targets trapped in a microfluidic chip. Fluorescence measurements are performed on a standard fluorescence microscope and are accessible to laboratories with only modest resources. Moreover, microfluidic technology allows efficient and cost-effective immobilization of small amounts of target molecules or live cells as well as flow-based manipulation of aptamers for the measurements. Kinetic measurements of aptamer binding to immunoglobulin E protein and CCRF-CEM cells have yielded results consistent with those obtained from established methods, demonstrating the potential utility of our method for exploring aptamer-target interactions and identifying aptamers that best suit specific given biomedical applications.

Unlocking the potential of 3D printed microfluidics for mass spectrometry analysis using liquid infused surfaces

Combining microfluidics with mass spectrometry (MS) analysis has great potential for enabling new analytical applications and simplifying existing MS workflows. The rapid development of 3D printing technology has enabled direct fabrication of microfluidic channels using consumer grade 3D printers, which holds great promise to facilitate the adoption of microfluidic devices by the MS community. However, photo polymerization-based 3D printed devices have an issue with chemical leeching, which can introduce contaminant molecules that may present as isobaric ions and/or severely suppress the ionization of target analytes when combined with MS analysis. Although extra cure and washing steps have alleviated the leeching issue, many such contaminant peaks can still show up in mass spectra. In this work, we report a simple surface modification strategy to isolate the chemical leachates from the channel solution thereby eliminating the contaminant peaks for MS analysis. The channel was prepared by fabricating a layer of polydimethylsiloxane graft followed by wetting the graft using silicone oil. The resulting liquid infused surface (LIS) showed significant reduction in contaminant peaks and improvement in the signal intensity of target analytes. The coating showed good stability after long-term usage (7 days) and long-term storage (∼6 months). Finally, the utility of the coating strategy was demonstrated by printing herringbone microfluidic mixers for studying fast reaction kinetics, which obtained comparable reaction rates to literature values. The effectiveness, simplicity, and stability of the present method will promote the adoption of 3D printed microdevices by the MS community.

A spectIR-fluidic reactor for monitoring fast chemical reaction kinetics with on-chip attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Microfluidics has emerged as a powerful technology with diverse applications in microbiology, medicine, chemistry, and physics. While its potential for controlling and studying chemical reactions is well recognized, the extraction and analysis of useful chemical information generated within microfluidic devices remain challenging. This is mainly due to the limited tools available for in situ measurements of chemical reactions. In this study, we present a proof-of-concept spectIR-fluidic reactor design that combines microfluidics with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for in situ kinetic studies of fast reactions. By integrating a multi-ridge silicon attenuated total reflection (ATR) wafer into the microfluidic device, we enable multi-point measurements for precise reaction time monitoring. As such, this work establishes a validated foundation for studying fast chemical reactions using on-chip ATR-FTIR spectroscopy in a microfluidic reactor environment, which enables simultaneous monitoring of reagents, intermediates, and products using a phosphate proton transfer reaction. The spectIR-fluidic reactor platform offers customizable designs, allowing for the investigation of reactions with various time scales, and has the potential to significantly advance studies exploring reaction mechanisms and optimization.

Ultrahigh-Throughput Enzyme Engineering and Discovery in In Vitro Compartments

Novel and improved biocatalysts are increasingly sourced from libraries via experimental screening. The success of such campaigns is crucially dependent on the number of candidates tested. Water-in-oil emulsion droplets can replace the classical test tube, to provide in vitro compartments as an alternative screening format, containing genotype and phenotype and enabling a readout of function. The scale-down to micrometer droplet diameters and picoliter volumes brings about a >107-fold volume reduction compared to 96-well-plate screening. Droplets made in automated microfluidic devices can be integrated into modular workflows to set up multistep screening protocols involving various detection modes to sort >107 variants a day with kHz frequencies. The repertoire of assays available for droplet screening covers all seven enzyme commission (EC) number classes, setting the stage for widespread use of droplet microfluidics in everyday biochemical experiments. We review the practicalities of adapting droplet screening for enzyme discovery and for detailed kinetic characterization. These new ways of working will not just accelerate discovery experiments currently limited by screening capacity but profoundly change the paradigms we can probe. By interfacing the results of ultrahigh-throughput droplet screening with next-generation sequencing and deep learning, strategies for directed evolution can be implemented, examined, and evaluated.

Towards an active droplet-based microfluidic platform for programmable fluid handling

Droplet-based microfluidic systems have emerged as powerful alternatives to conventional high throughput screening platforms, due to their operational flexibility, high-throughput nature and ability to efficiently process small fluid volumes. However, the challenges associated with performing bespoke operations on user-defined droplets often limit their utility in screening applications that involve complex workflows. To this end, the marriage of droplet- and valve-based microfluidic technologies offers the prospect of balancing the controllability of droplet manipulations and analytical throughput. In this spirit, we present a microfluidic platform that combines the capabilities of integrated microvalve technology with droplet-based sample compartmentalization to realize a highly adaptable programmable fluid handling functionality. The microfluidic device consists of a programmable formulator linked to an automated droplet generation device and storage array. The formulator leverages multiple inputs coupled to a mixing ring to produce combinatorial solution mixtures, with a peristaltic pump enabling titration of reagents into the ring with picoliter resolution. The platform allows for the execution of user-defined reaction protocols within an array of storage chambers by consecutively merging programmable sequences of pL-volume droplets containing specified reagents. The precision in formulating solutions with small differences in concentration is perfectly suited for the accurate estimation of kinetic parameters. The utility of our platform is showcased through the performance of enzymatic kinetic measurements of beta-galactosidase and horseradish peroxidase with fluorogenic substrates. The presented platform provides for a range of automated manipulations and paves the way for a more diverse range of droplet-based biological experiments.

Machine learning-based inverse design for electrochemically controlled microscopic gradients of O2 and H2O2

In microbiology, extracellular oxygen (O₂) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are spatiotemporally heterogenous, ubiquitously, at macroscopic level. Such spatiotemporal heterogeneities are critical to microorganisms, yet a well-defined method of studying such heterogenous microenvironments is lacking. This work develops a machine learning–based inverse design strategy that builds an electrochemical platform for achieving spatiotemporal control of O₂ and ROS microenvironments relevant to microbiology. The inverse design strategy not only demonstrates the power of machine learning to design concentration profiles in electrochemistry but also accelerates the development of custom microenvironments for specific microbial systems and allows researchers to better study how microenvironments affect microorganisms in myriads of environmental, biomedical, and sustainability-related applications.

A fundamental understanding of extracellular microenvironments of O₂ and reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as H₂O₂, ubiquitous in microbiology, demands high-throughput methods of mimicking, controlling, and perturbing gradients of O₂ and H₂O₂ at microscopic scale with high spatiotemporal precision. However, there is a paucity of high-throughput strategies of microenvironment design, and it remains challenging to achieve O₂ and H₂O₂ heterogeneities with microbiologically desirable spatiotemporal resolutions. Here, we report the inverse design, based on machine learning (ML), of electrochemically generated microscopic O₂ and H₂O₂ profiles relevant for microbiology. Microwire arrays with suitably designed electrochemical catalysts enable the independent control of O₂ and H₂O₂ profiles with spatial resolution of ∼10¹ μm and temporal resolution of ∼10° s. Neural networks aided by data augmentation inversely design the experimental conditions needed for targeted O₂ and H₂O₂ microenvironments while being two orders of magnitude faster than experimental explorations. Interfacing ML-based inverse design with electrochemically controlled concentration heterogeneity creates a viable fast-response platform toward better understanding the extracellular space with desirable spatiotemporal control.

Microfluidics for Multiphase Mixing and Liposomal Encapsulation of Nanobioconjugates: Passive vs. Acoustic Systems

One of the main routes to ensure that biomolecules or bioactive agents remain active as they are incorporated into products with applications in different industries is by their encapsulation. Liposomes are attractive platforms for encapsulation due to their ease of synthesis and manipulation and the potential to fuse with cell membranes when they are intended for drug delivery applications. We propose encapsulating our recently developed cell-penetrating nanobioconjugates based on magnetite interfaced with translocating proteins and peptides with the purpose of potentiating their cell internalization capabilities even further. To prepare the encapsulates (also known as magnetoliposomes (MLPs)), we introduced a low-cost microfluidic device equipped with a serpentine microchannel to favor the interaction between the liposomes and the nanobioconjugates. The encapsulation performance of the device, operated either passively or in the presence of ultrasound, was evaluated both in silico and experimentally. The in silico analysis was implemented through multiphysics simulations with the software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5® (COMSOL Inc., Stockholm, Sweden) via both a Eulerian model and a transport of diluted species model. The encapsulation efficiency was determined experimentally, aided by spectrofluorimetry. Encapsulation efficiencies obtained experimentally and in silico approached 80% for the highest flow rate ratios (FRRs). Compared with the passive mixer, the in silico results of the device under acoustic waves led to higher discrepancies with respect to those obtained experimentally. This was attributed to the complexity of the process in such a situation. The obtained MLPs demonstrated successful encapsulation of the nanobioconjugates by both methods with a 36% reduction in size for the ones obtained in the presence of ultrasound. These findings suggest that the proposed serpentine micromixers are well suited to produce MLPs very efficiently and with homogeneous key physichochemical properties.

One-step enzyme kinetics measurement in 3D printed microfluidics devices based on a high-performance single vibrating sharp-tip mixer

Measuring enzyme kinetics is of great importance to understand many biological processes and improve biosensing and industrial applications. Conventional methods of measuring enzyme kinetics require to prepare a series of solutions with different substrate concentrations and measure the signal response over time with these solutions, leading to tedious sample preparation steps, high reagents/sample consumption, and difficulties in studying fast enzyme kinetics. Here we report a one-step assay to measure enzyme kinetics using a 3D-printed microfluidic device, which eliminates the steps of preparing and handling multiple solutions thereby simplifying the whole workflow significantly. The assay is enabled by a highly efficient vibrating sharp-tip mixing method that can mix multiple streams of fluids with minimal mixing length (∼300 μm) and time (as low as 3 ms), and a wide range of working flow rates from 1.5 μL/min to 750 μL/min. Owing to the high performance of the mixer, a series of experiments with different substrate concentrations are performed by simply adjusting the flow rates of reagents loaded from three inlets in one experiment run. The Michaelis-Menten kinetics of the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-catalyzed reaction between H₂O₂ and amplex red is measured in this system. The calculated Michaelis constant is consistent with the values from literature and conventional analysis methods. Due to the simplicity in fabrication and operation, rapid analysis, low power consumption (1.4-45.0 mW), and high temporal resolution, this method will significantly facilitate enzyme kinetics measurement, and offers great potential for optimizing enzyme based biosensing experiments and probing many biochemical processes.

Substrate promiscuity of a de novo designed peroxidase

The design and construction of de novo enzymes offer potentially facile routes to exploiting powerful chemistries in robust, expressible and customisable protein frameworks, while providing insight into natural enzyme function. To this end, we have recently demonstrated extensive catalytic promiscuity in a heme-containing de novo protein, C45. The diverse transformations that C45 catalyses include substrate oxidation, dehalogenation and carbon‑carbon bond formation. Here we explore the substrate promiscuity of C45's peroxidase activity, screening the de novo enzyme against a panel of peroxidase and dehaloperoxidase substrates. Consistent with the function of natural peroxidases, C45 exhibits a broad spectrum of substrate activities with selectivity dictated primarily by the redox potential of the substrate, and by extension, the active oxidising species in peroxidase chemistry, compounds I and II. Though the comparison of these redox potentials provides a threshold for determining activity for a given substrate, substrate:protein interactions are also likely to play a significant role in determining electron transfer rates from substrate to heme, affecting the kinetic parameters of the enzyme. We also used biomolecular simulation to screen substrates against a computational model of C45 to identify potential interactions and binding sites. Several sites of interest in close proximity to the heme cofactor were discovered, providing insight into the catalytic workings of C45.

Nanocellulose Films to Improve the Performance of Distance-based Glucose Detection in Paper-based Microfluidic Devices

We report on a simple, cost-effective, instrument-free, and portable distance-based paper device coupled with NFs for the determination of glucose. The analysis reaction is based upon the oxidative etching reaction of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the presence of H₂O₂ that is produced from glucose after a glucose oxidase (GOx) catalytic reaction leading to a morphological transformation of AgNPs. A color band length of AgNPs is coated on to a detection channel and then etched by H₂O₂, and these were changed from a purple color to colorless as a correlate of the glucose concentration. To improve the performance of the enzyme immobilization, NFs, which are biocompatible without compromising their structure and biological activity, were then placed onto the sample zone. The naked-eye detection limit was 0.1 mM for 40 min of analysis time. The recoveries of glucose spiked in the artificial urine samples and control urine samples were then verified by our device and were in the acceptable range of 96 - 100%.

Antibody Conjugate Assembly on Ultrasound-Confined Microcarrier Particles

Bioconjugates are important next-generation drugs and imaging agents. Assembly of these increasingly complex constructs requires precise control over processing conditions, which is a challenge for conventional manual synthesis. This inadequacy has motivated the pursuit of new approaches for efficient, controlled modification of high-molecular-weight biologics such as proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. We report a novel, hands-free, semiautomated platform for synthetic manipulation of biomolecules using acoustically responsive microparticles as three-dimensional reaction substrates. The microfluidic reactor incorporates a longitudinal acoustic trap that controls the chemical reactions within a localized acoustic field. Forces generated by this field immobilize the microscale substrates against the continuous flow of participating chemical reagents. Thus, the motion of substrates and reactants is decoupled, enabling exquisite control over multistep reaction conditions and providing high-yield, high-purity products with minimal user input. We demonstrate these capabilities by conjugating clinically relevant antibodies with a small molecule. The on-bead synthesis comprises capture of the antibody, coupling of a fluorescent tag, product purification, and product release. Successful capture and modification of a fluorescently labeled antibody are confirmed via fold increases of 49 and 11 in the green (antibody)- and red (small-molecule dye)-channel median intensities determined using flow cytometry. Antibody conjugates assembled on acoustically responsive, ultrasound-confined microparticles exhibit similar quality and quantity to those prepared manually by a skilled technician.

Segmented Microfluidic Flow Reactors for Nanomaterial Synthesis

Microfluidic reactors have remarkably promoted the synthesis and investigation of advanced nanomaterials due to their continuous mode and accelerated heat/mass transfer. Notably, segmented microfluidic flow reactors (SMFRs) are an important class of microfluidic reactors that have been developed to accurately manipulate nanomaterial synthesis by further improvement of the residence time distributions and unique flow behaviors. This review provided a survey of the nanomaterial synthesis in SMFRs for the aspects of fluid dynamics, flow patterns, and mass transfer among and within distinct phases and provided examples of the synthesis of versatile nanomaterials via the use of different flow patterns.

Microfluidic immobilized enzyme reactors for continuous biocatalysis

This review investigates strategies for employing μ-IMERs for continuous biocatalysis via a top-down approach.

Controlling the distance of highly confined droplets in a capillary by interfacial tension for merging on-demand

Droplet microfluidics is a powerful technology that finds many applications in chemistry and biomedicine. Among different configurations, droplets confined in a capillary (or plugs) present a number of advantages: they allow positional identification and simplify the integration of complex multi-steps protocols. However, these protocols rely on the control of droplet speed, which is affected by a complex and still debated interplay of various physico-chemical parameters like droplet length, viscosity ratio between droplets and carrier fluid, flow rate and interfacial tension. We present here a systematic investigation of the droplet speed as a function of their length and interfacial tension, and propose a novel, simple and robust methodology to control the relative distance between consecutive droplets flowing in microfluidic channels through the addition of surfactants either into the dispersed and/or into the continuous phases. As a proof of concept application, we present the possibility to accurately trigger in space and time the merging of two confined droplets flowing in a uniform cross-section circular capillary. This approach is further validated by monitoring a conventional enzymatic reaction used to quantify the concentration of H2O2 in a biological sample, showing its potentialities in both continuous and stopped assay methods.

An Immobilized Enzyme Reactor for Spatiotemporal Control over Reaction Products

This paper describes a microfluidic chip wherein the position and order of two immobilized enzymes affects the type and quantity of reaction products in the flowing fluid. Assembly of the chip is based on a self-assembled monolayer presenting two orthogonal covalent capture ligands that immobilize their respective fusion enzyme. A thiol-tagged substrate is flowed over a region presenting the first enzyme-which generates a product that is efficiently transferred to the second enzyme-and the second enzyme's product binds to an adjacent thiol capture site on the chip. The amount of the three possible reaction products is quantified directly on the chip using self-assembled monolayers for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, revealing that the same microsystem can be spatiotemporally arranged to produce different products depending on the device design. This work allows for optimizing multistep biochemical transformations in favor of a desired product using a facile reaction and analytical format.

The kinetics of TEM1 antibiotic degrading enzymes that are displayed on Ure2 protein nanofibrils in a flow reactor

Enzymatic functionalization of cross-β structured protein nanofibrils has hitherto resulted in a severe reduction of the catalytic efficiency of high turnover biocatalysts. It has been speculated that steric restrictions and mass transport pose limits on the attached enzymes, but detailed kinetics analyzing this have not yet been reported. For a more comprehensive understanding, we studied protein nanofibrils endowed with TEM1, a β-lactamase from Escherichia coli. The packing density of TEM1 along the fibrils was controlled by co-fibrillation; in other words, the N-terminal ureidosuccinate transporter Ure2(1–80) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was simultaneously aggregated with the chimeric proteins TEM1-Ure2(1–80). The mature fibrils were trapped in a column, and the rate of ampicillin hydrolysis was recorded using a continuous substrate flow. The turnover rate was plotted as a function of substrate molecules available per enzyme per second, which demonstrated that an elevated substrate availability counteracts mass transport limitations. To analyze this data set, we derived a kinetic model, which makes it possible to easily characterize and compare enzymes packed in columns. The functional TEM1 nanofibrils possess 80% of the catalytic turnover rate compared to free TEM1 in solution. Altogether, we have created protein nanofibrils that can effectively hydrolyze β-lactam antibiotic contaminations and provided a groundwork strategy for other highly functional enzymatic nanofibrils.

A microfluidic chip with a staircase pH gradient generator, a packed column and a fraction collector for chromatofocusing of proteins

A microfluidic device for pH gradient chromatofocusing is presented, which performs creation of a micro-column, pH gradient generation, and fraction collection in a single device. Using a sieve micro-valve, anion exchange particles were packed into a microchannel in order to realize a solid-phase absorption column. To fractionate proteins according to their isoelectric points, elution buffer solutions with a stepwise pH gradient were prepared in 16 parallel mixing reactors and flowed through the micro-column, wherein a protein mixture was previously loaded. The volume of the column is only 20 nL, hence it allows extremely low sample consumption and fast analysis compared with a conventional system. We demonstrated separation of two proteins, albumin-fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugate (FITC-BSA) and R-Phycoerythrin (R-PE), by using a microcolumn of commercial charged polymeric particles (Source 15Q). The microfluidic device can be used as a rapid diagnostic tool to analyse crude mixtures of proteins or nucleic acids and determine adsorption/desorption characteristics of various biochemical products, which can be helpful for scientific fundamental understanding as well as instrumental in various industrial applications, especially in early stage screening and process development.

Real-time measurement of cholesterol secreted by human hepatocytes using a novel microfluidic assay

The use of microfluidics has become widespread in recent years because of the use of lesser resources such as small size, low volume of reagents, and physiological representation of mammalian cells. One of the advantages of microfluidic-based cell culture is the ability to perfuse culture media which tends to improve cellular health and function. Although measurement of cellular function conventionally is carried out using well-plates and plate readers, these approaches are insufficient to carry out in-line analysis of perfused cell cultures because of mismatch between volumes and sensitivity. We report the development of a novel microfluidic device and assay that is carried out under perfusion, in-line to measure the cholesterol secreted from a human hepatocyte tissue-chip. The heart of the assay is the unique implementation of enzymatic chemistry that is carried out on a polystyrene bead. Using this approach, we successfully measured cholesterol secreted by the perfused human hepatocytes.

Simultaneous detection of NADPH consumption and H2O2 production using the Ampliflu™ Red assay for screening of P450 activities and uncoupling

Cytochrome P450s belong to a large and diverse group of heme-containing enzymes. These monooxygenases catalyze the incorporation of a single atom of molecular oxygen into their substrate. In contrast to most other enzymes, the activity of P450 enzymes is not only dependent on substrate and cofactor availability and reaction conditions, but also depends on the coupling efficiency of the catalytic cycle itself. Through the electron transfer from NAD(P)H to the heme-center of the P450, the enzyme becomes activated and binds oxygen. The thereby generated iron-oxygen complex undergoes multiple reductive steps forming different activated oxygen species. These intermediates can decay easily, releasing the reactive oxygen species superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), which can also be further reduced to water. This so-called uncoupling of the reaction cycle drains electrons from the system, which consequently does not lead to the desired product, but merely H₂O₂ formation with stoichiometric consumption of NAD(P)H. Hence, measuring NAD(P)H consumption only can lead to an overestimation of substrate conversion. To measure this uncoupling, we herein report a microtiter plate-based assay for the simultaneous quantification of hydrogen peroxide formation and NAD(P)H consumption using Ampliflu™ Red as reporter. This was exemplified for the P450 monooxygenase from Bacillus megaterium (P450 BM3) and five mutants, using different substrates. We demonstrate the applicability of the assay, which provides a versatile basis for a high-throughput preliminary screening of P450 enzyme libraries without the need for GC or HPLC analysis and clear indication of the extent of hydrogen peroxide uncoupling.

Real-time monitoring of hydrophobic aggregation reveals a critical role of cooperativity in hydrophobic effect

The hydrophobic interaction drives nonpolar solutes to aggregate in aqueous solution, and hence plays a critical role in many fundamental processes in nature. An important property intrinsic to hydrophobic interaction is its cooperative nature, which is originated from the collective motions of water hydrogen bond networks surrounding hydrophobic solutes. This property is widely believed to enhance the formation of hydrophobic core in proteins. However, cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions has not been successfully characterized by experiments. Here, we quantify cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions by real-time monitoring the aggregation of hydrophobic solute (hexaphenylsilole, HPS) in a microfluidic mixer. We show that association of a HPS molecule to its aggregate in water occurs at sub-microsecond, and the free energy change is −5.8 to −13.6 kcal mol⁻¹. Most strikingly, we discover that cooperativity constitutes up to 40% of this free energy. Our results provide quantitative evidence for the critical role of cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions.

Hydrophobic interactions occur between nonpolar molecules in water and their experimental quantification can help the understanding of biological self-assembly. Here Jiang et al. examine the kinetics and thermodynamics of hydrophobic aggregation in a bulk environment and characterize its cooperativity.

A microfluidic device for the batch adsorption of a protein on adsorbent particles

A microfluidic platform or “microfluidic batch adsorption device” is presented, which performs two sets of 9 parallel protein incubations with/without adsorbent particles to achieve an adsorption isotherm of a protein in a single experiment.

A novel fluorimetric method for laccase activities measurement using Amplex Red as substrate

In this paper, a novel fluorescence-based method for laccase assay was presented. The method was based on the transformation of Amplex Red into a highly fluorescent and colored resorufin catalyzed by laccase in the presence of O₂. The catalysis and transformation mechanism were investigated in detail. The kinetic parameters of the Amplex Red catalysis by laccase were determined using the Lineweaver-Burk equation. V_max and K_m were estimated to be 15.63μmolmin^-1 and 76.88μmolL^-1, respectively. Under optimal conditions, a good linear correlation was found between fluorescence intensity and laccase activities within 5.62-702UL^-1 (r=0.9992), with a detection limit of 1.76UL^-1 (S/N=3). A series of repeatability measurements (351UL^-1 laccase) gave reproducible results with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.9% (n=11). The recoveries ranged from 93.7% to 100.0% after standard additions. Common existing species such as Mg²⁺, Zn²⁺, Ni²⁺, Al³⁺, Co²⁺, Cd²⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Na⁺, Fe³⁺, Li⁺, Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, Fe²⁺, l-lysine, glycine, glucose, phenol, humic acid, lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase alkaline phosphatase, cellulose, glucose oxidase, urease, catalase, invertase, and horseradish peroxidase did not significantly exhibit interference. The test solution (i.e., Amplex Red stock solution) could stabilize at least three months via storage in dark at 4±0.1°C. These results confirmed that the laccase-Amplex Red system was stable and reproducible with strong anti-interference ability and good selectivity, suggesting that this method can has great potential in practical applications for the assay of laccase activity. The proposed method was further successfully used to detect laccase activities in 38 soil samples. We noticed that the laccase activity significantly correlated with total nitrogen content (r=0.559; p<0.01) of soil, indicating laccase activity assay holds great promise as an index of soil analysis. These findings indicate that this presented method has great perspective in ecological investigation and fundamental research of soil environment.

Bead-Based Microfluidic Sediment Analogues: Fabrication and Colloid Transport

Mobile colloids can act as carriers for low-solubility contaminants in the environment. However, the dominant mechanism for this colloid-facilitated transport of chemicals is unclear. Therefore, we developed a bead-based microfluidic platform of sediment analogues and measured both single and population transport of model colloids. The porous medium is assembled through a bead-by-bead injection method. This approach has the versatility to build both electrostatically homogeneous and heterogeneous media at the pore scale. A T-junction at the exit also allowed for encapsulation and enumeration of colloids effluent at single particle resolution to give population dynamics. Tortuosity calculated from pore-scale trajectory analysis and its comparison with lattice Boltzmann simulations revealed that transport of colloids was influenced by the size exclusion effect. The porous media packed by positively and negatively charged beads into two layers showed distinctive colloidal particle retention and significant remobilization and re-adsorption of particles during water flushing. We demonstrated the potential of our method to fabricate porous media with surface heterogeneities at the pore scale. With both single and population dynamics measurement, our platform has the potential to connect pore-scale and macroscale colloid transport on a lab scale and to quantify the impact of grain surface heterogeneities that are natural in the subsurface environment.

Highly Sensitive and Multiple Enzyme Activity Assay Using Reagent-release Capillary-Isoelectric Focusing with Rhodamine 110-based Substrates

In this study, a simple and highly sensitive enzyme activity assay based on reagent-release capillary-isoelectric focusing is described. Reagent-release capillaries containing a fluorescent substrate, which produces fluorescent products possessing an isoelectric point after reaction with enzymes, provides a simple procedure. This is because it allows to spontaneously inject a sample solution into the capillary by capillary action, mixing reagents, and subsequently concentrating the fluorescent products based on isoelectric focusing. Fluorescent rhodamine 110 and its monoamide derivative, which were generated as a final product and an intermediate, respectively, were then focused and separated by reagent-release capillary-isoelectric focusing. After 30 min of enzyme reactions, two focused fluorescent bands were clearly isolated along the prepared capillaries. Employing the focused band of rhodamine 110 monoamide allowed for highly sensitive detection of enzyme activity in the 10 pg mL(-1) order, while that of the conventional assay using a microplate was in the ng mL(-1) order. Furthermore, arraying reagent-release capillaries of different substrates on a chip allowed for simultaneous multi-assay of enzyme activity with good sensitivity in the pg mL(-1) order for each protein.

Determination of the inhibitor dissociation constant of an individual unmodified enzyme molecule in free solution

Single enzyme molecule assays on E. coli β-galactosidase were performed using a capillary electrophoresis-based method. Three types of assays were performed. The catalytic rate of 20 individual molecules was assayed in duplicate in the presence of 50 μM substrate. The ratio of rates for the second incubation relative to the first was 0.96 ± 0.03, showing the reproducibility of the method. In the second assay, the rates were determined in the absence and presence of 210 μM L-ribose, a competitive inhibitor. The ratio of the rate in the presence of inhibitor to that in its absence for 19 individual molecules was 0.44 ± 0.23. This large relative standard deviation suggests that each individual enzyme molecule was affected to a different extent by the presence of the inhibitor, which is consistent with KI being heterogeneous. To estimate KI for individual molecules, a third assay was performed. Each molecule was incubated in the presence of 30 and 50 μM substrate and then in the presence of 50 μM substrate plus 210 μM inhibitor. Comparison of the rates in the two substrate concentrations allowed for the determination of the individual Km of each molecule. From this value and the difference in rates in the presence and absence of inhibitor, the individual molecule KI values were determined. This value was found to differ between individual molecules and was found to increase with an increase in Km . Modeling showed that a heterogeneity in KI results in an alteration in the Michaelis-Menten curve for a population of enzymes in the presence of a competitive inhibitor.

Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase-catalyzed synthesis of natural flavor esters in a continuous flow microreactor

Enzymatic catalysis is considered to be among the most environmental friendly processes for the synthesis of fine chemicals. In this study, lipase from Thermomyces lanuginosus (Lecitase Ultra™) was used to catalyze the synthesis of flavor esters, i.e., methyl butanoate and methyl benzoate by esterification of the acids with methanol in a microfluidic system. Maximum reaction rates of 195 and 115 mM min⁻¹ corresponding to catalytic efficiencies (k_cat/K_M) of 0.30 and 0.24 min⁻¹ mM⁻¹ as well as yield conversion of 54 and 41 % were observed in methyl butanoate and methyl benzoate synthesis, respectively. Catalytic turnover (k_cat) was higher for methyl butanoate synthesis. Rate of synthesis and yield decreased with increasing flow rates. For both esters, increase in microfluidic flow rate resulted in increased advective transport over molecular diffusion and reaction rate, thus lower conversion. In microfluidic synthesis using T. lanuginosus lipase, the following reaction conditions were 40 °C, flow rate 0.1 mL min⁻¹, and 123 U g⁻¹ enzyme loading found to be the optimum operating limits. The work demonstrated the application of enzyme(s) in a microreactor system for the synthesis of industrially important esters.

Mapping of Enzyme Kinetics on a Microfluidic Device

A microfluidic platform or “microfluidic mapper” is demonstrated, which in a single experiment performs 36 parallel biochemical reactions with 36 different combinations of two reagents in stepwise concentration gradients. The volume used in each individual reaction was 36 nl. With the microfluidic mapper, we obtained a 3D enzyme reaction plot of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) with Amplex Red (AR) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), for concentration ranges of 11.7 μM to 100.0 μM and 11.1 μM to 66.7 μM for AR and H₂O₂, respectively. This system and methodology could be used as a fast analytical tool to evaluate various chemical and biochemical reactions especially where two or more reagents interact with each other. The generation of dual concentration gradients in the present format has many advantages such as parallelization of reactions in a nanoliter-scale volume and the real-time monitoring of processes leading to quick concentration gradients. The microfluidic mapper could be applied to various problems in analytical chemistry such as revealing of binding kinetics, and optimization of reaction kinetics.

Effects of molecular confinement and crowding on horseradish peroxidase kinetics using a nanofluidic gradient mixer

The effects of molecular confinement and crowding on enzyme kinetics were studied at length scales and under conditions similar to those found in biological cells. These experiments were carried out using a nanofluidic network of channels constituting a nanofluidic gradient mixer, providing the basis for measuring multiple experimental conditions simultaneously. The 100 nm × 40 μm nanochannels were wet etched directly into borosilicate glass, then annealed and characterized with fluorescein emission prior to kinetic measurements. The nanofluidic gradient mixer was then used to measure the kinetics of the conversion of the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-catalyzed conversion of non-fluorescent Amplex Red (AR) to the fluorescent product resorufin in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The design of the gradient mixer allows reaction kinetics to be studied under multiple (five) unique solution compositions in a single experiment. To characterize the efficiency of the device the effects of confinement on HRP-catalyzed AR conversion kinetics were studied by varying the starting ratio of AR : H2O2. Equimolar concentrations of Amplex Red and H2O2 yielded the highest reaction rates followed by 2 : 1, 1 : 2, 5 : 1, and finally 1 : 5 [AR] : [H2O2]. Under all conditions, initial reaction velocities were decreased by excess H2O2. Crowding effects on kinetics were studied by increasing solution viscosity in the nanochannels in the range 1.0-1.6 cP with sucrose. Increasing the solution viscosities in these confined geometries decreases the initial reaction velocity at the highest concentration from 3.79 μM min(-1) at 1.00 cP to 0.192 μM min(-1) at 1.59 cP. Variations in reaction velocity are interpreted in the context of models for HRP catalysis and for molecular crowding.

A. Enzymatic microreactors in biocatalysis: history, features, and future perspectives

Microfluidic reaction devices are a very promising technology for chemical and biochemical processes. In microreactors, the micro dimensions, coupled with a high surface area/volume ratio, permit rapid heat exchange and mass transfer, resulting in higher reaction yields and reaction rates than in conventional reactors. Moreover, the lower energy consumption and easier separation of products permit these systems to have a lower environmental impact compared to macroscale, conventional reactors. Due to these benefits, the use of microreactors is increasing in the biocatalysis field, both by using enzymes in solution and their immobilized counterparts. Following an introduction to the most common applications of microreactors in chemical processes, a broad overview will be given of the latest applications in biocatalytic processes performed in microreactors with free or immobilized enzymes. In particular, attention is given to the nature of the materials used as a support for the enzymes and the strategies employed for their immobilization. Mathematical and engineering aspects concerning fluid dynamics in microreactors were also taken into account as fundamental factors for the optimization of these systems.

Continuous power generation from glucose with two different miniature flow-through enzymatic biofuel cells

Enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) can generate energy from metabolites present in physiological fluids. They represent an attractive alternative to lithium batteries to power implantable devices, as they work at body temperature, are light and easy-to-miniaturise. To be implantable in blood vessels, EBFCs should not only be made of non-toxic and biocompatible compounds but should also be able to operate in continuous flow-through mode. The EBFC devices reported so far, however, implement carbon-based materials of questionable toxicity and stability, such as carbon nanotubes, and rely on the use of external redox mediators for the electrical connection between the enzyme and the electrode. With this study, we demonstrate for the first time continuous power generation by flow through miniature enzymatic biofuel cells fed with an aerated solution of glucose and no redox mediators. Non-toxic highly porous gold was used as the electrode material and the immobilisation of the enzymes onto the electrodes surface was performed via cost-effective and easy-to-reproduce methodologies. The results presented here are a significant step towards the development of revolutionary implantable medical devices that extract the power they require from metabolites in the body.

Immobilization of lambda exonuclease onto polymer micropillar arrays for the solid-phase digestion of dsDNAs

The process of immobilizing enzymes onto solid supports for bioreactions has some compelling advantages compared to their solution-based counterpart including the facile separation of enzyme from products, elimination of enzyme autodigestion, and increased enzyme stability and activity. We report the immobilization of λ-exonuclease onto poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) micropillars populated within a microfluidic device for the on-chip digestion of double-stranded DNA. Enzyme immobilization was successfully accomplished using 3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDC/NHS) coupling to carboxylic acid functionalized PMMA micropillars. Our results suggest that the efficiency for the catalysis of dsDNA digestion using λ-exonuclease, including its processivity and reaction rate, were higher when the enzyme was attached to a solid support compared to the free solution digestion. We obtained a clipping rate of 1.0 × 10³ nucleotides s^–1 for the digestion of λ-DNA (48.5 kbp) by λ-exonuclease. The kinetic behavior of the solid-phase reactor could be described by a fractal Michaelis–Menten model with a catalytic efficiency nearly 17% better than the homogeneous solution-phase reaction. The results from this work will have important ramifications in new single-molecule DNA sequencing strategies that employ free mononucleotide identification.