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Capillary-based Centrifugal Microfluidic Device for Size-controllable Formation of Monodisperse Microdroplets
Published on: February 22, 2016
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Nanoliter-scale liquid metering and droplet generation based on a capillary array for high throughput screening
Le-He Jin1, Yan Wei1, Hui-Feng Wang1
1Institute of Microanalytical Systems, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Talanta
|October 20, 2020
Summary
We developed a simple capillary array system for precise nanoliter liquid handling. This high-throughput screening method accurately dispenses picoliter to nanoliter droplets for protein crystallization.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Analytical Chemistry
- Materials Science
Background:
- Accurate and efficient liquid handling is crucial for high-throughput screening (HTS) in drug discovery and biochemical research.
- Traditional methods for nanoliter liquid dispensing can be complex, time-consuming, and prone to errors, limiting their scalability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a simple, quantitative, and parallelized approach for nanoliter-scale liquid metering using a capillary array.
- To apply this system for high-throughput screening of protein crystallization conditions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized capillary force for spontaneous liquid introduction into fixed-length, defined-inner-diameter capillaries.
- Employed a pneumatic pump for controlled liquid dispensing to generate nanoliter droplets.
- Optimized capillary tip geometry and surface hydrophobicity to minimize residual liquid and enhance precision.
- Developed a 12-capillary array system for parallel liquid generation.
Main Results:
- Achieved high precision in liquid metering, with relative standard deviations (RSD) ranging from 0.2% to 3.5% for droplets from 280 pL to 90 nL.
- Demonstrated the system's ability to handle liquids with varying surface tensions and viscosities.
- Successfully generated 12 nL droplets for 12 samples in parallel within 40 seconds, achieving an RSD of 1.2%.
- Applied the system to screen lysozyme crystallization conditions, dispensing 7.5 nL of precipitant and protein solutions.
Conclusions:
- The developed capillary array system offers a simple, precise, and efficient method for quantitative nanoliter liquid handling.
- This technology has significant potential for large-scale, high-throughput screening applications in protein crystallization and other biochemical analyses.
- The system's adaptability to different liquid properties and its parallel processing capability make it a valuable tool for accelerating scientific discovery.
