DNA-SMART: Biopatterned Polymer Film Microchannels for Selective Immobilization of Proteins and Cells

Abstract

A novel SMART module, dubbed "DNA-SMART" (DNA substrate modification and replication by thermoforming) is reported, where polymer films are premodified with single-stranded DNA capture strands, microthermoformed into 3D structures, and postmodified with complementary DNA-protein conjugates to realize complex biologically active surfaces within microfluidic devices. As a proof of feasibility, it is demonstrated that microchannels presenting three different proteins on their inner curvilinear surface can be used for selective capture of cells under flow conditions.

Cascades in Compartments: En Route to Machine‐Assisted Biotechnology

“…To this end, synthetic DNA molecules can be immobilized on the surface of specific compartments and then used as address tags to specifically bind enzymes bearing the complementary oligonucleotide (Figure C) . This approach is highly versatile because the physicochemical stability of DNA allows various methods to be used to microstructure and pattern the fluidic systems . However, further advances will critically depend on improved access to semisynthetic DNA conjugates, even from sensitive enzymes…”

Highly Transparent Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Film with a Nanotextured Surface Prepared by One-Step Photografting for High-Density DNA Immobilization

“…Biochips, which capture a high density of biomolecule microarrays on their surfaces, have been one of the most powerful tools in various biorelated fields, including disease diagnostics, drug screening, genomics, and proteomics because of their fast, selective, sensitive, and high-throughput detection of target molecules. − Compared with the most commonly used glass substrates in biochip technology, many polymer materials also possess satisfactory optical transparency and suitable bulk rigidity in slide form for standard measurement. Moreover, thermoplastic polymers commonly have excellent processability and, thus, are amenable to large-scale production and can be microfabricated in a cost-effective manner for further integration with lab-on-a-chip devices. − Recently, some polymers have been intensively investigated as promising supports for preparation of biomolecule microarrays. − Among them, the cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) has attracted special interest because of its unique features of high transparency, low autofluorescence, good chemical resistance, and low water uptake under moist conditions. − However, the surface of the COC mainly consists of C–H bonds, which lack reactive sites for further covalent immobilization of biomolecules. Several techniques have been explored to overcome the surface inertness of the COC by introducing functional groups on its surface, including plasma treatment, UV/ozone oxidation, , adsorption of functional polymers by hydrophobic interaction, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, UV-photografting, and catalytic chemical oxidation. , Although these methods can effectively activate the COC surface with functional groups (e.g., COOH, OH, and NH 2 ) or a reactive polymer brush, they focus little on improving the sensitivity of the biochips.…”

Functionalized DNA Hydrogels Produced by Polymerase‐Catalyzed Incorporation of Non‐Natural Nucleotides as a Surface Coating for Cell Culture Applications

“…While all the previous experiments were carried out under static conditions on flat surfaces, we also wanted to investigate the potential of the new DNA hydrogels under fluidic culture conditions. To this end, we used a cylindrical flow channel (2 mm diameter) prepared by microthermoforming, as previously described ( Figure A) . To immobilize the DNA hydrogel, cyclic olefin polymer foils were first chemically activated with epoxy groups and subsequently formed into half‐channels by microthermoforming.…”