Microfluidic-Enabled Print-to-Screen Platform for High-Throughput Screening of Combinatorial Chemotherapy

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Chemical Engineering
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Combination chemotherapy is a standard cancer treatment since the 1960s.
• Conventional methods for identifying effective drug combinations are costly, slow, and inefficient.
• The vast number of potential drug combinations presents a significant challenge in cancer therapy development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-cost, high-efficiency microfluidic platform for high-throughput screening of anticancer drug combinations.
• To integrate combinatorial screening with biomolecular printing for accelerated drug discovery.
• To overcome the limitations of traditional drug combination identification methods.

Main Methods:

• A microfluidic print-to-screen (P2S) platform was developed.
• The platform integrates combinatorial printing with parallel drug screening using modular, disposable cartridges.
• Microfluidic impact printing was characterized for controllable droplet volume and accurate positioning.

Main Results:

• The P2S platform demonstrated automatic combinatorial printing and high-throughput parallel screening.
• A proof-of-concept experiment successfully identified positive drug hits from a large library.
• The system offers controllable droplet volume and accurate positioning for precise drug delivery.

Conclusions:

• The microfluidic P2S platform provides a simple, low-cost, and efficient solution for large-scale combinatorial screening.
• This technology can significantly speed up the discovery cycle for potent anticancer drug combinations.
• The platform is applicable to various emerging applications in drug cocktail discovery.