One-step pipetting and assembly of encoded chemical-laden microparticles for high-throughput multiplexed bioassays

Abstract

One quantitative liquid handling method in conventional assay processes is pipetting, which delivers a precise volume of one sample at a time. As this process becomes laborious and time-consuming as the number of samples increases, researchers in individual laboratories need a way to conduct large-scale assays in a reasonable amount of time and at an affordable cost. Here we report a novel handling technique of chemical substances termed 'partipetting', which allows the one-step pipetting of various chemical-laden hydrogels. We pipette and assemble various types of encoded chemical-laden microparticles in microwell arrays in parallel. The combination of this heterogeneous particle chip and a cell chip induces the release of the chemicals from the hydrogels and, eventually, the chemicals treat the targets. Based on bioassay applications using partipetting, we show its capability in large-scale bioassays, without the need for high-throughput bioassay resources, owing to a reduction in the assay costs and time.

High-throughput screening for integrative biomaterials design: exploring advances and new trends

“…This may also open a possibility to increase the throughput of cellladen hydrogels in a robot-independent strategy. Recently, a technique named 'partipeting' -consisting of wiping hydrogels that are randomly pipetted on the top of a microwell array in order to force each individual hydrogel to enter a single microwell -was suggested in order to rapidly pipette distinct hydrogels in parallel and in the absence of manual or sophisticated pipetting systems [66].…”

Synthesis of Cell-Adhesive Anisotropic Multifunctional Particles by Stop Flow Lithography and Streptavidin–Biotin Interactions

“…9,10 Cell-laden microparticles have been utilized as building blocks for the construction of dynamic self-assembled tissues. 11–13 Cell-adhesive micropallets have been tested for massively parallel clonogenic screening, 14 single cell sorting, 15 in vitro therapeutic models, 4 or the study of cell-microenvironment interaction. 7 However, for most of these applications, microparticles can accommodate only homogeneous cell cultures and cannot take advantage of the recent advances enabled by cell-patterning technologies.…”

Selective Functionalization of Microstructured Surfaces by Laser‐Assisted Particle Transfer

“…A donor and an acceptor slide are positioned on top of each other, so that the microstructures are facing each other and the centers of the opposing cavities coincide. [12] The donor slide is filled with microparticles, which contain activated monomers.…”