Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Jorge A. A. Belgodere, Mustafa Alam, Valentino E. E. Browning, Jason Eades, Jack North, Julie A. A. Armand, Yue Liu, Terrence R. R. Tiersch, W. Todd Monroe
Summary: Sperm motility analysis in aquatic species is challenging due to sample limitations, activation requirements, and short motility duration. This article presents a microfluidic mixer with a novel geometry that enables rapid and consistent sperm activation. The device can be used with zebrafish sperm and combined with computer-assisted sperm analysis systems. The micromixer's geometry can be modified for other aquatic species and an open hardware approach using 3D resin printing can improve standardization and reproducibility.
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Wensheng Wang, Mingxin Li, Cong Xu
Summary: This study demonstrates the significant role of vertical chaotic advection in the mixing process of 3D OFMs, which promotes overall mixing. The findings have important implications for improving the mixing efficiency of micromixers.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Md Ehtashamul Haque, Alvaro J. J. Conde, William N. N. MacPherson, Stephen R. R. Knight, Richard M. M. Carter, Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas
Summary: A finger-actuated blood lysate preparation device based on acoustofluidic micromixer is developed for effective red blood cell lysis, which has potential applications in various blood-based diagnostic tests. The device features innovative design and user-friendly operation, offering opportunities for the development of low-cost microfluidic-based diagnostics.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Ekta Tripathi, Promod Kumar Patowari, Sukumar Pati
Summary: This study proposes three innovative spiral micromixers and investigates their mixing and pressure drop characteristics under different Reynolds numbers. SE and RS micromixers show better mixing performance and higher mixing index compared to the SS micromixer. The width of the mixers has a greater impact on the mixing index than the depth.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND PROCESSING-PROCESS INTENSIFICATION
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Anyang Wang, Samaneh Moghadasi Boroujeni, Philip J. Schneider, Liam B. Christie, Kyle A. Mancuso, Stelios T. Andreadis, Kwang W. Oh
Summary: An integrated serial dilution generator utilizing centrifugal force and vacuum-driven force was proposed, allowing for easy adjustment of dilution ratio and chamber volume by changing the geometrical designs of the device. The device was used for sample metering and transferring, as well as sample loading and mixing, with successful preparation of ten-fold serial dilutions and good agreement with manually prepared samples in subsequent analysis.
Article
Thermodynamics
R. Prakash, M. Zunaid, Samsher
Summary: In recent years, the microfluidics technique has gained attention and become a fascinating topic. This research presents a comparison of the mixing quality between square and circular section spiral microchannels through numerical simulation. The results show that the circular section spiral microchannel provides higher mixing quality compared to the square section spiral microchannel, which is of great significance for the design of microfluidic devices like Lab on a chip (LOC).
JOURNAL OF APPLIED FLUID MECHANICS
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Embarek Douroum, Samir Laouedj, Amar Kouadri, Toufik Tayeb Naas, Sofiane Khelladi, Abdelylah Benazza
Summary: Efficient micromixers are widely used in various industrial applications for enhancing mixing efficiency. This study focuses on numerically investigating the impact of micromixer geometry on hydrodynamic and thermal mixing performances using different configurations. The results demonstrate that the proposed micromixer outperforms others in terms of mixing efficiency and energy cost at low Reynolds numbers.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AND PROCESSING-PROCESS INTENSIFICATION
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Stefan Hennig, Zhe Shu, Ludwig Gutzweiler, Peter Koltay, Felix von Stetten, Roland Zengerle, Susanna M. Frueh
Summary: A paper-based open microfluidic platform was developed for efficient protein separation and immunological analysis, demonstrating advantages in time-saving, reduced sample consumption, and improved reproducibility. This platform is particularly suitable for analyzing scarce and precious samples.
Article
Pathology
Elena Kipf, Franziska Schlenker, Nadine Borst, Marion Fillies, Renate Kirschner-Schwabe, Roland Zengerle, Cornelia Eckert, Felix von Stetten, Michael Lehnert
Summary: The authors developed personalized multiplex mediator probe PCR (MP PCR) for MRD monitoring in ALL, which can accurately quantify more MRD markers in less sample material. This helps reduce the impact of clonal tumor evolution on clinical outcomes. Additionally, they increased the multiplex level to 4-plex and met the EuroMRD requirements for reliable quantification, facilitating and accelerating MP PCR assay development for standardized personalized diagnostics.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Fritz Koch, Ole Thaden, Stefan Conrad, Kevin Troendle, Gunter Finkenzeller, Roland Zengerle, Sabrina Kartmann, Stefan Zimmermann, Peter Koltay
Summary: The generation of artificial human tissue using 3D bioprinting has become an important research topic in recent years. In this study, the authors evaluate the process parameters relevant to a hybrid bioprinting process, involving the printing of thermoplastic material and a cell-laden hydrogel. Through their experiments, they determine the optimal printing temperature and filament bonding strength for successful tissue generation. They also examine the mechanical strength of the printed structures and observe that scaffolds made using the hybrid bioprinting technique show promising mechanical properties.
JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Anna Klebes, Anna-Sophia Kittel, Rene D. Verboket, Felix von Stetten, Susanna M. Fruh
Summary: The development of a Multianalyte-Assay that can simultaneously detect inflammation biomarkers and pathogen DNA from one sample within 35 minutes has great potential to improve wound management at the point-of-care.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS B-CHEMICAL
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Yu-Ting Kao, Silvia Calabrese, Nadine Borst, Michael Lehnert, Yu-Kai Lai, Franziska Schlenker, Peter Juelg, Roland Zengerle, Piotr Garstecki, Felix von Stetten
Summary: A novel microfluidic one-pot wash-free fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assay was developed for detection and quantification of bacterial load, offering simplicity, speed, and accuracy in analysis. This method is significant for quantitative analysis of bacterial load.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Kevin Troendle, Guilherme Miotto, Ludovica Rizzo, Roman Pichler, Fritz Koch, Peter Koltay, Roland Zengerle, Soeren S. Lienkamp, Sabrina Kartmann, Stefan Zimmermann
Summary: We used bioprinted renal epithelial cell spheroids for toxicity testing and found that the spheroids exhibited higher sensitivity to cisplatin treatment compared to monolayers. The inhibitory concentration of the spheroids was lower than that of the monolayers. Fluorescent labeling indicated the accumulation of kidney injury molecule 1 in the central lumen of the spheroids. Additionally, we developed an automatic toxicity readout method based on deep learning that achieved a balanced accuracy of 78.7% for distinguishing between different treatment effects.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOPRINTING
(2022)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Maximilian Neugebauer, Clara E. Grundmann, Michael Lehnert, Felix von Stetten, Susanna M. Frueh, Regine Suss
Summary: This article presents a novel approach for quantifying siRNA in drug formulations using reverse transcription real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). The method is highly sensitive and specific, allowing for the quantification of released siRNA and assessment of siRNA stability and concentration inside dendriplexes.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Franziska Schlenker, Peter Juelg, Jan Lueddecke, Nils Paust, Roland Zengerle, Tobias Hutzenlaub
Summary: cfDNA is a promising biomarker for cancer monitoring and infectious disease diagnostics. This study presents a new concept for automated cfDNA extraction using nanobeads in a centrifugal microfluidic LabDisk. By optimizing the incubation chamber geometry, frequency, and temperature protocols, the recovery rates of cfDNA were maximized. The LabDisk showed better reproducibility and comparable allele frequencies compared to manual approaches, making it a highly attractive solution for automated liquid biopsy cfDNA extraction.
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Guilherme Miotto, Kerstin Thiemann, Markus Rombach, Roland Zengerle, Sabrina Kartmann
Summary: This article presents a method based on holographic PIV/PTV for accurately measuring low flow rates in medical applications. The method is simple and can measure flow rates within the range of a few nL/min.
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING-BIOMEDIZINISCHE TECHNIK
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Joshua Weygant, Fritz Koch, Katrin Adam, Kevin Troendle, Roland Zengerle, Guenter Finkenzeller, Sabrina Kartmann, Peter Koltay, Stefan Zimmermann
Summary: This study used a drop-on-demand bioprinting approach to investigate the cellular interactions between building blocks in dimensions of micrometers. It was found that a gap of 200 μm between endothelial cells (HUVECs) and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) led to decreased sprouting of HUVECs towards ASCs and increased growth from ASCs towards HUVECs.
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Pranshul Sardana, Mohammadreza Zolfaghari, Guilherme Miotto, Roland Zengerle, Thomas Brox, Peter Koltay, Sabrina Kartmann
Summary: The reliable dispensing of droplets in a small volume range is challenging, and it depends on factors such as liquid properties and dispenser design. This study uses convolutional neural networks to classify liquids with different rheological properties and evaluates the effects of data cleaning, sampling strategies, and training data size. The best-performing model, based on the ECOmini-18 architecture, achieves a test accuracy of 94.2% after training on 12,000 data points from two batches.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Yu-Kai Lai, Yu-Ting Kao, Jacob Friedrich Hess, Silvia Calabrese, Felix von Stetten, Nils Paust
Summary: This article presents a centrifugal microfluidic cartridge that can generate eight-fold parallel monodisperse water-in-oil droplets using standard laboratory equipment. The cartridge design interfaces centrifugal microfluidics with linear structures of standard high-throughput laboratory automation, enabling simultaneous droplet generation from eight samples into standard PCR 8-tube strips. The inlets of the cartridge allow for minimal manual liquid handling, and droplets with a mean diameter of 86 μm and a coefficient of variation below 4% can be generated within 10 minutes. Additionally, a digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) assay demonstrated the feasibility of the method.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Silvia Calabrese, Anja M. Markl, Maximilian Neugebauer, Stefanie J. Krauth, Nadine Borst, Felix von Stetten, Michael Lehnert
Summary: This article presents a novel reporter emission multiplexing approach for digital PCR (REM-dPCR), which utilizes n target-independent reporter molecules and target sequence-specific mediator probes to increase the multiplexing capacity of the device. The study demonstrates the sensitive and precise quantification of KRAS mutant and wild-type DNA sequences using this method.
