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Electrowetting-based Digital Microfluidics Platform for Automated Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay
Published on: February 23, 2020
Generic microfluidic platform for digital droplet-based bioassays
Julia Sophie Böke1,2,3, Cornelia Reuter1,4,2, Mark Kielpinski1
1Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Member of the Research Alliance "Leibniz Health Technologies", The Leibniz Centre for Photonics in Infection Research (LPI) Albert-Einstein-Straße 9 07745 Jena Germany cornelia.reuter@leibniz-ipht.de thomas.henkel@leibniz-ipht.de.
A new microfluidic platform integrates droplet generation, incubation, and readout for generic digital bioassays (ddAssays). This single device enables high-throughput parallel testing with over 200,000 droplets.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Microfluidics
- Assay Development
Background:
- Digital droplet-based bioassays (ddAssays) are versatile but often require complex, multi-step microfluidic platforms.
- Existing platforms can be assay-specific, limiting their broad applicability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a fully integrated microfluidic platform for generic digital bioassays.
- To enable on-chip droplet generation, incubation, and optical readout on a single disposable device.
Main Methods:
- The platform integrates droplet generation, storage, on-chip incubation, and optical readout.
- It utilizes variothermal compression molding and a dual-layer photoresist strategy for fabrication.
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental characterization validated device performance.
Main Results:
- The platform successfully generates and handles over 200,000 monodisperse 35 pL droplets per experiment.
- Demonstrated functionality with biochemical and microbial growth reporter assays using various optical readout modalities.
- Achieved compatibility with automated image-based analysis for high-throughput readout.
Conclusions:
- The presented microfluidic platform offers a streamlined, integrated solution for generic digital bioassays.
- It facilitates parallel testing and high-throughput analysis, advancing ddAssay applications.
