High‐Density Microfluidic Particle‐Cluster‐Array Device for Parallel and Dynamic Study of Interaction between Engineered Particles

Abstract

A high-density and high-performance microfluidic particle-cluster-array device utilizing a novel hydrodynamically tunable pneumatic valve (HTPV) is reported for parallel and dynamic monitoring of the interactions taking place in particle clusters. The key concept involves passive operation of the HTPV through elastic deformation of a thin membrane using only the hydrodynamic force inherent in microchannel flows. This unique feature allows the discrete and high-density (≈30 HTPVs mm ) arrangement of numerous HTPVs in a microfluidic channel without any pneumatic connection. In addition, the HTPV achieves high-performance clustering (≈92%) of three different particles in an array format through the optimization of key design and operating parameters. Finally, a contamination-free, parallel, and dynamic biochemical analysis strategy is proposed, which employs a simple one-inlet-one-outlet device operated by the effective combination of several techniques, including particle clustering, the interactions between engineered particles, two-phase partitioning and dehydration control of aqueous plugs, and shape/color-based particle identification.

Microfluidics-Based Single-Cell Research for Intercellular Interaction

“…To investigate cell-cell interaction, calcein-AM transfer between multiple cells under different patterns had been quantified with local fluorescent intensity. Except for the presented application, structure traps could also be employed for other cell-cell interaction analyses, such as asymmetric trap for obstacle/particle steric interactions (Lee and Burns, 2015), pneumatic valve for parallel and dynamic monitoring processes of particle clusters interactions (Kim et al, 2017), and hydrodynamic trap for cell-cell interaction (Duchamp et al, 2019).…”

Microfluidic platform for selective microparticle parking and paired particle isolation in droplet arrays

“…3), so that upon isolation the paired objects will reside in the same droplet, and it will be possible to monitor interactions between the two objects. Compared to previous microfluidic platforms 6,11,21 for arranging pairs or groups of objects, the two particles in our device do not have to come into direct contact with one another. This means that it is possible to monitor longer-range interactions between objects that may be distinct from interactions arising from direct contact.…”

A single snapshot multiplex immunoassay platform utilizing dense test lines based on engineered beads

“…Herein, we propose an advanced platform that enables multiplex one-step immunoassays for timely on-site responses (MOnITOR) with robust and dense test lines based on engineered microbeads. Microbeads were incorporated because of their versatility (i.e., ease of surface functionalization, high stability of conjugates, high surface-to-volume ratio, and mobility), which can allow sensitive multiplex analysis via various encoding techniques ( Gilboa et al 2021 ; Kim et al 2017 ; Lee et al 2019 ; Norman et al 2020 ; Sankova et al 2020 ; Shrivastava et al 2020 ). By integrating versatile microbeads, target biomarkers can be easily changed, allowing adoption of this method during the ongoing global pandemic and to prepare for any potential co-epidemic threats and future pandemics ( Hemmig et al 2020 ).…”