The past two decades have seen far-reaching progress in the development of microfluidic systems for use in the chemical and biological sciences. Here we assess the utility of microfluidic reactor technology as a tool in chemical synthesis in both academic research and industrial applications. We highlight the successes and failures of past research in the field and provide a catalogue of chemistries performed in a microfluidic reactor. We then assess the current roadblocks hindering the widespread use of microfluidic reactors from the perspectives of both synthetic chemistry and industrial application. Finally, we set out seven challenges that we hope will inspire future research in this field.

We present a simple, automated method for high-throughput formation of droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) in a microfluidic device. We can form complex DIB networks that are able to fill predefined three dimensional architectures. Moreover, we demonstrate the flexibility of the system by using a variety of lipids including 1,2-diphytanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPhPC) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC).

We present a fully integrated droplet-based microfluidic platform for the high-throughput assessment of photodynamic therapy photosensitizer (PDT) efficacy on Escherichia coli. The described platform is able to controllably encapsulate cells and photosensitizer within pL-volume droplets, incubate the droplets over the course of several days, add predetermined concentrations of viability assay agents, expose droplets to varying doses of electromagnetic radiation, and detect both live and dead cells online to score cell viability. The viability of cells after encapsulation and incubation is assessed in a direct fashion, and the viability scoring method is compared to model live/dead systems for calibration. Final results are validated against conventional colony forming unit assays. In addition, we show that the platform can be used to perform concurrent measurements of light and dark toxicity of the PDT agents and that the platform allows simultaneous measurement of experimental parameters that include dark toxicity, photosensitizer concentration, light dose, and oxygenation levels for the development and testing of PDT agents.