Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Junxia Wang, Jingjing Guo, Kaifeng Zhao, Weidong Ruan, Liang Li, Jiajun Ling, Ruixiao Peng, Huimin Zhang, Chaoyong Yang, Zhi Zhu
Summary: Auto-Panning is an integrated and automated biopanning platform based on digital microfluidics, which enables efficient, precise, and automated liquid manipulation, significantly reducing the time required for biopanning. The platform has successfully been used to evolve a specific peptide against a cancer biomarker, demonstrating its practicality and potential for further ligand discovery and applications.
Review
Engineering, Chemical
Anindita Saikia, Rachita Newar, Saikat Das, Astha Singh, Deepak J. Deuri, Arabinda Baruah
Summary: Microfluidic technology allows for unique and novel pathways in preparing nanostructured materials, offering greater control over shape and size compared to batch chemical reactors. It is cost-effective and has reduced chemical demands. Microfluidic reactors are also superior in photocatalytic investigations. This article provides an overview of recent developments in microreactor-based synthesis of nanostructured materials, photocatalytic decontamination of water, and nanomaterial-based microfluidic sensors.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH & DESIGN
(2023)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Yunze Sun, Yiran Wu, Dachuan Ma, Jian-Jun Li, Xianming Liu, Yuanjiang You, Jun Lu, Zhen Liu, Xin Cheng, Yuguang Du
Summary: Glycans are important natural biopolymers with diverse functions. However, the tedious manual processes and high reagent consumption hinder the development of automatic glycan sequencing and synthesis. In this study, enzymatic degradation and synthesis of glycans were successfully conducted on a digital microfluidic device, enabling the development of automated glycan synthesizers and sequencers. The study also demonstrated the successful enzymatic degradation of tetra-N-acetyl chitotetraose and the two-step enzymatic synthesis of lacto-N-tetraose on the digital microfluidic platform. This work paves the way for the future development of automatic enzymatic glycan synthesizers and sequencers.
FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biophysics
Yi Zhang, Nurhidayah Binte Mohamed Yazid, Pei-Yun Ho, Xuyang Hu, Songlin Chen, Shawn Vasoo, Pojchanun Kanitthamniyom
Summary: This study presents an automated magnetic digital microfluidics-based platform, called DropCarba, for the detection of carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative bacilli (CPGNB). The platform simplifies the testing process, improves consistency, and has comparable results to the standard Carba NP test. It provides a valuable contribution to combating antibiotic resistance.
BIOSENSORS & BIOELECTRONICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yingwen Chen, Xuanqun Wang, Xing Na, Yingkun Zhang, Zan Li, Xiaohui Chen, Linfeng Cai, Jia Song, Ren Xu, Chaoyong Yang
Summary: Single-cell microRNA (miRNA) sequencing provides comprehensive insights into the abundance and complex networks of miRNAs and their dynamic regulation of cellular events. However, current benchtop-based technologies for single-cell miRNA sequencing have limitations in terms of throughput, efficiency, manual operations, and reagent costs. In this study, a highly multiplexed and automated sample preparation platform called Hiper-seq is introduced, which is based on digital microfluidics (DMF). The platform allows for the construction of miRNA sequencing libraries through digital control of addressable droplets on the DMF chip, enabling selective isolation and parallel processing of multiple single cells. This platform offers higher throughput and efficiency for single-cell miRNA measurement, with a smaller reaction volume and lower reagent cost compared to benchtop methods. Furthermore, it has been successfully applied to explore miRNAs involved in the ossification of mouse skeletal stem cells after bone fracture, leading to the discovery of previously unreported miRNAs that regulate bone repairing.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Annie R. Hooper, Andraz Ostrek, Ana Milian-Lopez, David Sarlah
Summary: This study presents a chemical synthesis method for preparing pyritide A2, involving the synthesis of a pyridine ring from an amino acid precursor, resulting in the efficient preparation of this class of natural products and analogues.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Tsvetomir Ivanov, Shoupeng Cao, Nitin Bohra, Marina de Souza Melchiors, Lucas Caire da Silva, Katharina Landfester
Summary: We have developed a fully polymeric microreactor with a coacervate-in-vesicle architecture that exhibits an adaptive response to pH. The microreactor allows for the dynamic modulation of internal subcompartments, resulting in the sequestration and localization of enzymes and reaction products driven by environmental cues.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Philipp L. Antkowiak, Julian Koch, Bichlien H. Nguyen, Wendelin J. Stark, Karin Strauss, Luis Ceze, Robert N. Grass
Summary: This article presents a solution to future data storage deficiency by utilizing DNA as a primary storage medium, which offers a significantly larger storage capacity.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Haisong Lin, Wenzhuo Yu, Kiarash A. Sabet, Michael Bogumil, Yichao Zhao, Jacob Hambalek, Shuyu Lin, Sukantha Chandrasekaran, Omai Garner, Dino Di Carlo, Sam Emaminejad
Summary: This study presents a swarm of millimeter-sized magnet robots ('ferrobots') that can handle magnetized sample droplets and deliver nucleic acid amplification tests with precision and reliability. The automated platform demonstrated laboratory-equivalent operations for pooled testing, maximizing testing efficiency. Applied for SARS-CoV-2 virus detection, the results matched those obtained off-chip. The technology is easily manufacturable and distributable, potentially reducing reagent costs and instrumentation cost, making it a promising solution to expand global testing capacity.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Hamed Morshedian, Milad Abolhasani
Summary: The photostability of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is crucial for their long-term applicability in energy and chemical technologies. However, current photostability studies are sensitive to experimental conditions, lack mechanistic understanding, and are time, material, and labor-intensive. In this study, an automated microfluidic platform is introduced for accelerated photostability studies of colloidal QDs, which is 3.5x faster and 100x more material efficient compared to conventional flask-based studies. The microfluidic strategy provides real-time access to the optical properties of QDs during the photostability experiments, shedding light on the complex and multifaceted photodegradation phenomena of colloidal QDs and demonstrating the unique advantages of microfluidic strategies for improving and accelerating QD photostability studies.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Ruisheng Guo, Mengling Ouyang, Yue Fan, Xuelin Tian, Shilin Huang
Summary: This paper proposes a new strategy to manipulate nonmagnetic droplets using low magnetic fields with high positioning accuracy. By using a channeled superhydrophobic surface and magnetic particles in the channel, the authors demonstrate the control of droplet motion on solid surfaces. This versatile strategy provides an ideal platform for programming droplet behavior using magnetic fields.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Gan Wang, Hwee Ting Ang, Srinivas Reddy Dubbaka, Patrick O'Neill, Jie Wu
Summary: The automation of pharmaceutical synthesis has been a long-term goal in the industry, as it allows for rapid and efficient preparation of organic compounds and frees chemists from laborious work. Efforts have been made to improve the universality and capability of automation in multistep synthesis, with a focus on automated iterative synthesis, automated digitalized batch synthesis, automated SPS-flow synthesis, automated radial synthesis, and automated multistep continuous-flow synthesis. This review highlights the recent development of these methods and their complementarity in the automated synthesis of pharmaceuticals.
TRENDS IN CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Haonan Li, Long Jiao, Rong Chen, Xun Zhu, Yang Yang, Dingding Ye, Hong Wang, Yijing Yang, Qiang Liao
Summary: Light-enabled droplet levitation has great potential in biotechnology, clinical medicine, and nanomaterial applications, with the ability to flexibly follow the motion of a moving laser beam. However, research shows that there is an upper limit to the motion of light-levitated droplets with a moving laser beam, which is caused by an inefficient interface temperature response and a small upward vertical vapor flow component. Above this upper limit, the droplets are unable to stably move with the laser beam and eventually disappear.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Review
Engineering, Environmental
Liangliang Lin, Hue Quoc Pho, Lu Zong, Sirui Li, Nima Pourali, Evgeny Rebrov, Nam Nghiep Tran, Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, Volker Hessel
Summary: Microfluidic plasmas integrate microfluidics and non-equilibrium plasmas, allowing precise matter and heat transport. They offer new pathways for chemical synthesis and engineering processes, with applications in nanomaterials, surface modification, and environmental applications.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Qingyu Ruan, Fenxiang Zou, Yang Wang, Yingkun Zhang, Xing Xu, Xiaoye Lin, Tian Tian, Huimin Zhang, Leiji Zhou, Zhi Zhu, Chaoyong Yang
Summary: This paper presents an integrated, low-cost, and portable point-of-care (POC) device for analyzing DNA methylation, capable of detecting as low as 10 pg with a sensitivity that allows for detection down to 5% methylation level within 30 minutes. The POC platform shows great potential for the analysis of tumor-specific circulating DNA, offering advantages of portability, ease of use, high accuracy, and low cost.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Bingyu B. Li, Erica Y. Scott, Ninni E. Olafsen, Jason Matthews, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: The study reveals that the expression level of AHR affects the invasiveness of breast cancer cells, with AHR knockout enhancing invasive characteristics and AHR overexpression reducing invasiveness. The results suggest a potential role of AHR in regulating invasion and metastasis in breast cancer.
Article
Optics
Shuailong Zhang, Mohamed Elsayed, Ran Peng, Yujie Chen, Yanfeng Zhang, Steven L. Neale, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: This study investigated the use of light patterns to manipulate dielectric micro-particles with optoelectronic tweezers (OET). The experimental results showed that the maximum velocities of the microparticles are influenced by the thickness of the light pattern. Numerical simulations revealed the underlying physical mechanisms, and further experiments demonstrated the applicability of this mechanism to different light pattern shapes and objects.
PHOTONICS RESEARCH
(2022)
Review
Cell Biology
Erin M. Euliano, Alexandros A. Sklavounos, Aaron R. Wheeler, Kevin J. McHugh
Summary: This article discusses the clinical success factors for diagnostics and drug delivery systems in low-resource settings and provides recommendations for the clinical translation of future medical technologies.
SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Review
Biochemical Research Methods
Carine R. Nemr, Alexandros A. Sklavounos, Aaron R. Wheeler, Shana O. Kelley
Summary: Bacteria play important roles in synthetic biology, sequencing, and diagnostic testing, but the experimental protocols involving bacteria are often complex and require numerous instruments. Digital microfluidics (DMF) offers a miniaturized platform to simplify the processes of bacterial protocols, from sample preparation to analysis. DMF devices can be used in conjunction with existing research tools or integrated into all-in-one packages, providing versatility and convenience. This perspective discusses the benefits, limitations, and potential future directions of DMF in bacterial studies.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Man Ho, Aaron Au, Robert Flick, Thu V. Vuong, Alexandros A. Sklavounos, Ian Swyer, Christopher M. Yip, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: Fouling at liquid-solid interfaces is a severe problem for digital microfluidics (DMF) and can be combatted by including amphiphilic surfactant additives in the droplets. This study evaluated 19 different Pluronic and Tetronic additives to determine their antifouling performance, structural similarities, and mechanism of action. The analysis showed that Pluronic and Tetronic additives with specific characteristics can provide exceptional antifouling performance in DMF. The results and their implications are important progress for the DMF community and can guide the selection of surfactants for manipulating biological matrices.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Instruments & Instrumentation
Aaron Au, Man Ho, Aaron R. Wheeler, Christopher M. Yip
Summary: Supercritical angle fluorescence (SAF) microscopy is a novel imaging tool that accurately locates fluorophores relative to a surface. This study reports a hardware add-on and Python module to extend the capability of SAF microscopy for monitoring dynamic surface adsorption at sub-second intervals.
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Preeti Chauhan, V Ragendu, Mohan Kumar, Rajib Molla, V. B. Unnikrishnan, Vishal Rai
Summary: The selective modification of proteins has gained significant interest in recent years, driven by the growth of biologics and the need for precision therapeutics. However, the broad range of selectivity parameters presents challenges to the field's growth. Understanding the principles behind bond formation and dissociation during the translation from small molecules to proteins could accelerate progress in this area.
ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xi Chen, Xiaowen Chen, Mohamed Elsayed, Harrison Edwards, Jiayu Liu, Yixin Peng, H. P. Zhang, Shuailong Zhang, Wei Wang, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: Researchers have developed an optoelectronic strategy to control the motion of micromotors using programmable light patterns. By illuminating hydrogenated amorphous silicon, local electric field maxima are generated at the edge of the light pattern, attracting micromotors. This method allows for precise control of micromotors in customized paths and through complex microstructures, as well as enabling multiple motion modes and parallel control of multiple micromotors.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Jiaxi Peng, Calvin Chan, Fei Meng, Yechen Hu, Lingfan Chen, Ge Lin, Shen Zhang, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: Single-cell proteomics is an important subfield with potential to reshape our understanding of cell development, differentiation, disease diagnosis, and therapy. This study compared seven popular proteomics programs on three different datasets, finding that MSGF+, MSFragger, and Proteome Discoverer are more efficient for maximizing protein identifications. MaxQuant is better for low-abundance proteins, MSFragger is superior in elucidating peptide modifications, and Mascot and X!Tandem are better for analyzing long peptides. The study also explored improvements in single-cell proteomics data analysis. Overall, this comparative study provides insight for both experts and beginners in single-cell proteomics.
JOURNAL OF PROTEOME RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Calvin Chan, Jiaxi Peng, Vigneshwar Rajesh, Erica Y. Scott, Alexandros A. Sklavounos, Maryam Faiz, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: The proteome profiles of small tissue samples have great clinical potential, but conventional proteomic methods are not suitable for analyzing these samples. Researchers have developed an automated digital microfluidic workflow using a photocleavable surfactant, which enables the efficient analysis of small tissue samples and identifies a large number of proteins.
JOURNAL OF PROTEOME RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Organic
Rajib Molla, Pralhad N. Joshi, Neelesh C. Reddy, Dwaipayan Biswas, Vishal Rai
Summary: The method utilizes protein-protein interaction to selectively modify a protein through chemoselective reversible generation of reactive intermediates and subsequent site-specific irreversible step, providing a homogeneous and modular approach for protein modification.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Preeti Chauhan, V Ragendu, Mohan Kuurar, Rajib Molla, V. B. Unnikrishnan, Vishal Rai
Summary: The chemical toolbox for selective protein modification has attracted great interest in recent years. The growth of biologics and the demand for precision therapeutics have further driven this growth. However, the wide range of selectivity parameters poses a barrier to the field's development. Understanding the principles and developing theories to unravel the multidimentional attributes could accelerate progress in this area. This outlook presents a disintegrate (DIN) theory for systematically addressing selectivity challenges through reversible chemical reactions, offering an integrated solution for precise protein bioconjugation. In this perspective, key advancements, unsolved challenges, and potential opportunities are highlighted.
ACS CENTRAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Man Ho, N. Sathishkumar, Alexandros A. Sklavounos, Jianxian Sun, Ivy Yang, Kevin P. Nichols, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: This study developed a new microfluidic system that combines digital microfluidics (DMF) with distance-based detection (DBD) for LAMP-based point-of-care nucleic acid amplification tests (POC NAATs). The system allows for direct signal readout without the need for dedicated optical detection apparatus. The method was validated for SARS-CoV-2 detection in saliva and showed promising results. The combination of DMF with DBD holds great potential for implementing various POC NAATs or other applications in the future.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Shuailong Zhang, Bingrui Xu, Mohamed Elsayed, Fan Nan, Wenfeng Liang, Justin K. Valley, Lianqing Liu, Qiang Huang, Ming C. Wu, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: The rapid development of micromanipulation technologies has provided new opportunities for the actuation and assembly of nano/micro-objects. Optoelectronic tweezers (OET) is a state-of-the-art technique that combines light stimuli with electric field to control micro-objects. OET offers tremendous advantages in micromanipulation, such as programmability, flexibility, versatility, and high-throughput.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Tularam Sahu, Mohan Kumar, T. K. Sajeev, Manas Joshi, Ram Kumar Mishra, Vishal Rai
Summary: The study demonstrates the specific generation of N-Gly in native proteins for protein tagging without perturbing their structure and function.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
