Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Prerna Chandna, Venkat Gundabala
Summary: In this study, a microfluidics-based approach was used to sort two-particle and three-particle mixtures, demonstrating the device's capability to completely sort mixtures with different particle ratios. By employing a retain-and-release strategy, the largest particles were enriched and recovered, creating streams free of the largest particles. The efficiency of the sorting process was characterized in terms of purity and recovery, showing high performance in sorting target particles for all investigated particle ratios.
MICROFLUIDICS AND NANOFLUIDICS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zongjie Wang, Hansen Wang, Sichun Lin, Sharif Ahmed, Stephane Angers, Edward H. Sargent, Shana O. Kelley
Summary: Magnetic cell sorting is a crucial tool for isolating specific cellular subpopulations, and a new approach has been developed to efficiently amplify the magnetic labeling on cells, enabling its application in cancer diagnostics and immunotherapy.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Claudia Zielke, Adriana J. Gutierrez Ramirez, Kelsey Voss, Maya S. Ryan, Azam Gholizadeh, Jeffrey C. Rathmell, Paul Abbyad
Summary: This study presents a label-free, fixation-free and passive sorting method to isolate activated T-cells shortly after activation and prior to the display of activation surface markers. The method uses a sorting platform called Sorting by Interfacial Tension (SIFT) based on pH. It successfully isolates and enriches activated T-cells on chip, and allows for the testing of T-cell activation modulators and the determination of differentiation outcomes.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Shuai Yuan, Yulin Zhang, Lang Nan, P. T. Lai, Tong Zhang, Philip W. T. Pong, Ho Cheung Shum
Summary: Microbes are widely present in our environment and have significant impacts on our society. The treatment of microorganisms has always been a complex problem due to a lack of efficient screening tools. In this study, a novel all-aqueous microfluidic workflow is proposed to overcome the limitation of conventional systems. This approach allows for cell-cell and cell-environment interactions, promoting the growth of bacteria and enabling on-chip manipulation of microcapsules. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by single bacterium culturing in droplet-templated alginate beads and it offers new opportunities for microbial applications.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NANOBIOSCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Kangfu Chen, Zongjie Wang
Summary: Rare cells are important in the development and progression of diseases, making their analysis of great interest. Micro-magnetofluidic systems have emerged as a rapidly developing platform for the sensitive and cost-effective analysis of rare cells. This mini review provides a timely summary of the progress in this field, discussing the concepts, realizations, and applications of micro-magnetofluidic devices in rare cell analysis. The challenges in the development and translation of these devices into the clinic are also highlighted.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Xuyang Hu, Yi Zhang, Jing Yang, Kai Xiao, Jinhong Guo, Xiaosheng Zhang
Summary: Magnetic digital microfluidics (MDM) is a technology for lab-on-a-chip applications that manipulates droplets on an open surface with magnetic force. By introducing a polydopamine-coated thin magnet as a mobile surface energy trap (SET), MDM achieves releasable droplet dispensing and all-terrain droplet transport. This advancement significantly expands the applicability and acceptability of MDM technology in biosensing, in vitro diagnostics, and other biomedical applications by matching the functionality of the electrowetting-on-dielectrics (EWOD)-based digital microfluidic system.
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS B-CHEMICAL
(2023)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Junguang Yu, Xin Yao, Chailu Que, Lian Huang, Ho-Wah Hui, Yuchuan Gong, Feng Qian, Lian Yu
Summary: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to measure the surface concentration and enrichment kinetics of a polymer in a glass-forming molecular liquid. The study focuses on the bulk-miscible system of maltitol-polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The concentration of PVP at the liquid/vapor interface is significantly higher than in the bulk, and this effect increases with the molecular weight. The rate of surface enrichment is controlled by bulk diffusion, and the obtained polymer diffusion coefficient agrees with calculations based on viscosity and the Stokes-Einstein equation. This finding allows for predicting the rate of surface composition equilibration in amorphous materials after milling, fracture, and changes in ambient temperature.
MOLECULAR PHARMACEUTICS
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Benjamin M. Tansi, Raj Kumar Manna, Oleg E. Shklyaev, Matthew L. Peris, Anna C. Balazs, Ayusman Sen
Summary: A standalone fluidic device driven by light has been developed to autonomously transport different-sized particles in opposite directions within the chamber, providing a new method for analyzing fluids containing multiple contaminants or disease agents.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Shuai Yuan, P. T. Lai, Anderson H. C. Shum, Philip W. T. Pong
Summary: Active sorting of bacteria using droplet microfluidics has great potential for revealing microbial biodiversity. However, traditional sorting methods are not effective in all-aqueous systems, hindering their application in bacteria screening. In this article, Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in alginate beads were used for culturing and sorting bacteria using magnetic manipulation.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Robert Salomon, Sajad Razavi Bazaz, Wenyan Li, David Gallego-Ortega, Dayong Jin, Majid Ebrahimi Warkiani
Summary: This paper presents a detailed method that utilizes flow cytometry for quantitatively characterizing the performance of continuous-flow microfluidic devices designed for particle separation. This method overcomes the limitations of current methods such as high-speed fluorescent imaging or cell counting, as it accurately assesses device performance in complex, high concentration mixtures. It uniquely takes advantage of pulse processing in flow cytometry to quantify cell separation efficiencies and resulting sample purities, including both single cells and cell clusters. Additionally, it can be combined with cell surface phenotyping to measure separation efficiencies and purities in complex cell mixtures.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Long Jiao, Qian Xu, Jiangyi Tong, Shuai Liu, Yanjun Hu, Qianqian Guo, Huaping Wu, Wei Li, Qinxin Zhao, Rong Chen
Summary: This study proposes a new method to create superamphiphobic surfaces with high and durable liquid repellency. By simply spraying fluorinated TiO2 nanoparticles onto a polymer paper, a highly liquid-repellent surface can be generated. The surface exhibits excellent durability, with the ability to resist underwater ultrasonic shock and maintain stability.
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Liang Xu, Xiaohuan Liu, Huiwang Gao, Xiaohong Yao, Daizhou Zhang, Lei Bi, Lei Liu, Jian Zhang, Yinxiao Zhang, Yuanyuan Wang, Qi Yuan, Weijun Li
Summary: This study investigated the long-range transport of anthropogenic air pollutants from East Asia to clean marine air, revealing significant impacts on marine aerosol chemistry. Results showed that anthropogenic particles and gases perturb different aerosol chemistry in coastal and remote marine air, emphasizing the importance of addressing the modification of sea salt aerosol particles in remote marine areas due to anthropogenic gaseous pollutants.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
He Yang, Tuomas P. J. Knowles
Summary: This study presents numerical investigations on droplet sorting with asymmetric acute junctions. The research finds that the asymmetric acute junctions can achieve volume-based sorting and velocity-based sorting. The pressure distributions in the asymmetric junctions are discussed to reveal the physical mechanism behind the droplet sorting. The study also explores the dependence of the droplet sorting on the droplet volume, velocity, and junction angle, and discusses the possibility of the proposed sorting method in real experiments. This work provides a new, simple, and cost-effective passive strategy to separate droplets in microfluidic channels, and it offers more opportunities to sort droplets by combining with other sorting methods.
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Can Huang, Yuqian Jiang, Yuwen Li, Han Zhang
Summary: Since its invention, droplet microfluidic technologies have been widely used for high-throughput chemical and biological functional screening applications, and have undergone significant improvement and study. Each droplet serves as an individual bioreactor, enabling the screening of millions of droplets individually based on specific requirements. This paper reviews the current methods for droplet detection and active sorting in microfluidic systems, providing an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each technology, and concludes with future development prospects.
Review
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Andra-Sabina Neculai-Valeanu, Adina Mirela Ariton
Summary: Sexing of sperm cells, a major target of reproductive biotechnology, has seen significant advancements with the help of molecular biology, biophysics, and computer science. These technologies have not only improved reproductive management in farm animals and human medicine, but also helped prevent sex-linked genetic diseases and improve production efficiency. Despite challenges in conception rates with sex-sorted semen, emergent nano and microfluidic-based technologies show promising potential for assisted reproduction programs.
