Exploring bubble oscillation and mass transfer enhancement in acoustic-assisted liquid-liquid extraction with a microfluidic device

We investigated bubble oscillation and its induced enhancement of mass transfer in a liquid-liquid extraction process with an acoustically-driven, bubble-based microfluidic device. The oscillation of individually trapped bubbles, of known sizes, in microchannels was studied at both a fixed frequency, and over a range of frequencies. Resonant frequencies were analytically identified and were found to be in agreement with the experimental observations. The acoustic streaming induced by the bubble oscillation was identified as the cause of this enhanced extraction. Experiments extracting Rhodanmine B from an aqueous phase (DI water) to an organic phase (1-octanol) were performed to determine the relationship between extraction efficiency and applied acoustic power. The enhanced efficiency in mass transport via these acoustic-energy-assisted processes was confirmed by comparisons against a pure diffusion-based process.

Combining the Masking and Scaffolding Modalities of Colloidal Crystal Templates: Plasmonic Nanoparticle Arrays with Multiple Periodicities

Surface patterns with prescribed structures and properties are highly desirable for a variety of applications. Increasing the heterogeneity of surface patterns is frequently required. This work opens a new avenue toward creating nanoparticle arrays with multiple periodicities by combining two generally separately applied modalities (i.e., scaffolding and masking) of a monolayer colloidal crystal (MCC) template. Highly ordered, loosely packed binary and ternary surface patterns are realized by a single-step thermal treatment of a gold thin-film-coated MCC and a nonclose-packed MCC template. Our approach enables control of the parameters defining these nanoscale binary and ternary surface patterns, such as particle size, shape, and composition, as well as the interparticle spacing. This technique enables preparation of well-defined binary and ternary surface patterns to achieve customized plasmonic properties. Moreover, with their easy programmability and excellent scalability, the binary and ternary surface patterns presented here could have valuable applications in nanophotonics and biomedicine. Specific examples include biosensing via surface-enhanced Raman scattering, fabrication of plasmonic-enhanced solar cells, and water splitting.

Electrochemically Created Highly Surface Roughened Ag Nanoplate Arrays for SERS Biosensing Applications

Highly surface-roughened Ag nanoplate arrays are fabricated using a simple electrodeposition and in situ electrocorrosion method with inorganic borate ions as capping agent. The electrocorrosion process is induced by a change in the local pH value during the electrochemical growth, which is used to intentionally carve the electrodeposited structures. The three dimensionally arranged Ag nanoplates are integrated with substantial surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) hot spots and are free of organic contaminations widely used as shaping agents in previous works, making them excellent candidate substrates for SERS biosensing applications. The SERS enhancement factor of the rough Ag nanoplates is estimated to be > 109. These Ag nanoplate arrays are used for SERS-based analysis of DNA hybridization monitoring, protein detection, and virus differentiation without any additional surface modifications or labelling. They all exhibit an extremely high detection sensitivity, reliability, and reproducibility.

Optically induced dielectropheresis sorting with automated medium exchange in an integrated optofluidic device resulting in higher cell viability

We demonstrated the integration of a microfluidic device with an optically induced dielectrophoresis (ODEP) device such that the critical medium replacement process was performed automatically and the cells could be subsequently manipulated by using digitally projected optical images. ODEP has been demonstrated to generate sufficient forces for manipulating particles/cells by projecting a light pattern onto photoconductive materials which creates virtual electrodes. The production of the ODEP force usually requires a medium that has a suitable electrical conductivity and an appropriate dielectric constant. Therefore, a 0.2 M sucrose solution is commonly used. However, this requires a complicated medium replacement process before one is able to manipulate cells. Furthermore, the 0.2 M sucrose solution is not suitable for the long-term viability of cells. In comparison to conventional manual processes, our automated medium replacement process only took 25 minutes. Experimental data showed that there was up to a 96.2% recovery rate for the manipulated cells. More importantly, the survival rate of the cells was greatly enhanced due to this faster automated process. This newly developed microfluidic chip provided a promising platform for the rapid replacement of the cell medium and this was also the first time that an ODEP device was integrated with other active flow control components in a microfluidic device. By improving cell viability after cell manipulation, this design may contribute to the practical integration of ODEP modules into other lab-on-a-chip devices and biomedical applications in the future.

Extracellular-controlled breast cancer cell formation and growth using non-UV patterned hydrogels via optically-induced electrokinetics

The culturing of cancer cells on micropatterned substrates can provide insight into the factors of the extracellular environment that enable the control of cell growth. We report here a novel non-UV-based technique to quickly micropattern a poly-(ethylene) glycol diacrylate (PEGDA)-based hydrogel on top of modified glass substrates, which were then used to control the growth patterns of breast cancer cells. Previously, the fabrication of micropatterned substrates required relatively complicated steps, which made it impractical for researchers to rapidly and systematically investigate the effects of different cell growth patterns. The technique presented herein operates on the principle of optically-induced electrokinetics (OEKs) and uses computer-generated projection light patterns to dynamically pattern the hydrogel on a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film, atop an indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate. This technique allows us to pattern lines, circles, pentagons, and more complex shapes in the hydrogel with line widths below 3 μm and thicknesses of up to 6 μm within 8 s by simply controlling the projected illumination pattern and applying an appropriate AC voltage between the two ITO glass substrates. After separating the glass substrates to expose the patterned hydrogel, we experimentally demonstrate that MCF-7 breast cancer cells will adhere to the bare a-Si:H surface, but not to the hydrogel patterned in various geometric shapes and sizes. Theoretical analysis and finite-element model simulations reveal that the dominant OEK forces in our technique are the dielectrophoresis (DEP) force and the electro-osmosis force, which enhance the photo-initiated cross-linking reaction in the hydrogel. Our preliminary cultures of breast cancer cells demonstrate that this reported technique could be applied to effectively confine the growth of cancer cells on a-Si:H surfaces and affect individual cell geometry during their growth.

Rare cell isolation and analysis in microfluidics

Rare cells are low-abundance cells in a much larger population of background cells. Conventional benchtop techniques have limited capabilities to isolate and analyze rare cells because of their generally low selectivity and significant sample loss. Recent rapid advances in microfluidics have been providing robust solutions to the challenges in the isolation and analysis of rare cells. In addition to the apparent performance enhancements resulting in higher efficiencies and sensitivity levels, microfluidics provides other advanced features such as simpler handling of small sample volumes and multiplexing capabilities for high-throughput processing. All of these advantages make microfluidics an excellent platform to deal with the transport, isolation, and analysis of rare cells. Various cellular biomarkers, including physical properties, dielectric properties, as well as immunoaffinities, have been explored for isolating rare cells. In this Focus article, we discuss the design considerations of representative microfluidic devices for rare cell isolation and analysis. Examples from recently published works are discussed to highlight the advantages and limitations of the different techniques. Various applications of these techniques are then introduced. Finally, a perspective on the development trends and promising research directions in this field are proposed.

Theory and experiment on particle trapping and manipulation via optothermally generated bubbles

We present a theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration of particle trapping and manipulation around optothermally generated bubbles. We show that a particle located within 500 μm of a surface bubble can be attracted towards a bubble by drag force resulting from a convective flow. Once the particle comes in contact with the bubble's surface, a balance between surface tension forces and pressure forces traps the particle on the bubble surface, allowing the particle to move with the bubble without detaching. The proposed mechanism is confirmed by computational fluid dynamics simulations, force calculations, and experiments. Based on this mechanism, we experimentally demonstrated a novel approach for manipulating microparticles via optothermally generated bubbles. Using this approach, randomly distributed microparticles were effectively collected and carried to predefined locations. Single particles were also manipulated along prescribed trajectories. This bubble-based particle trapping and manipulation technique can be useful in applications such as micro assembly, particle concentration, and high-precision particle separation.

Accelerating drug discovery via organs-on-chips

Considerable advances have been made in the development of micro-physiological systems that seek to faithfully replicate the complexity and functionality of animal and human physiology in research laboratories. Sometimes referred to as "organs-on-chips", these systems provide key insights into physiological or pathological processes associated with health maintenance and disease control, and serve as powerful platforms for new drug development and toxicity screening. In this Focus article, we review the state-of-the-art designs and examples for developing multiple "organs-on-chips", and discuss the potential of this emerging technology to enhance our understanding of human physiology, and to transform and accelerate the drug discovery and preclinical testing process. This Focus article highlights some of the recent technological advances in this field, along with the challenges that must be addressed for these technologies to fully realize their potential.

Inducing self-rotation of cells with natural and artificial melanin in a linearly polarized alternating current electric field

The phenomenon of self-rotation observed in naturally and artificially pigmented cells under an applied linearly polarized alternating current (non-rotating) electrical field has been investigated. The repeatable and controllable rotation speeds of the cells were quantified and their dependence on dielectrophoretic parameters such as frequency, voltage, and waveform was studied. Moreover, the rotation behavior of the pigmented cells with different melanin content was compared to quantify the correlation between self-rotation and the presence of melanin. Most importantly, macrophages, which did not originally rotate in the applied non-rotating electric field, began to exhibit self-rotation that was very similar to that of the pigmented cells, after ingesting foreign particles (e.g., synthetic melanin or latex beads). We envision the discovery presented in this paper will enable the development of a rapid, non-intrusive, and automated process to obtain the electrical conductivities and permittivities of cellular membrane and cytoplasm in the near future.

Nucleic acid amplification using microfluidic systems

In the post-human-genome-project era, the development of molecular diagnostic techniques has advanced the frontiers of biomedical research. Nucleic-acid-based technology (NAT) plays an especially important role in molecular diagnosis. However, most research and clinical protocols still rely on the manual analysis of individual samples by skilled technicians which is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Recently, with advances in microfluidic designs, integrated micro total-analysis-systems have emerged to overcome the limitations of traditional detection assays. These microfluidic systems have the capability to rapidly perform experiments in parallel and with a high-throughput which allows a NAT analysis to be completed in a few hours or even a few minutes. These features have a significant beneficial influence on many aspects of traditional biological or biochemical research and this new technology is promising for improving molecular diagnosis. Thus, in the foreseeable future, microfluidic systems developed for molecular diagnosis using NAT will become an important tool in clinical diagnosis. One of the critical issues for NAT is nucleic acid amplification. In this review article, recent advances in nucleic acid amplification techniques using microfluidic systems will be reviewed. Different approaches for fast amplification of nucleic acids for molecular diagnosis will be highlighted.