A Portable, Negative-Pressure Actuated, Dynamically Tunable Microfluidic Droplet Generator

A Portable, Negative-Pressure Actuated, Dynamically Tunable Microfluidic Droplet Generator

Droplet microfluidics utilize a monodisperse water-in-oil emulsion, with an expanding toolbox offering a wide variety of operations on a range of droplet sizes at high throughput. However, translation of these capabilities into applications for non-expert laboratories to fully harness the inherent p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Micromachines (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 1823
Main Authors: Trossbach, Martin, de Lucas Sanz, Marta, Seashore-Ludlow, Brinton, Joensson, Haakan N
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 25-10-2022
MDPI
Subjects:
Actuators
Automation
Biotechnology
Bioteknologi
Cell culture
Control equipment
droplet microfluidics
Droplets
Laboratories
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Microfluidics
microtissues
plug & play
portable microfluidics
Spheroids
Surfactants
droplet microfluidics
plug & play
portable microfluidics
spheroids
microtissues
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Summary:Droplet microfluidics utilize a monodisperse water-in-oil emulsion, with an expanding toolbox offering a wide variety of operations on a range of droplet sizes at high throughput. However, translation of these capabilities into applications for non-expert laboratories to fully harness the inherent potential of microscale manipulations is woefully trailing behind. One major obstacle is that droplet microfluidic setups often rely on custom fabricated devices, costly liquid actuators, and are not easily set up and operated by non-specialists. This impedes wider adoption of droplet technologies in, e.g., the life sciences. Here, we demonstrate an easy-to-use minimal droplet production setup with a small footprint, built exclusively from inexpensive commercially sourced parts, powered and controlled by a laptop. We characterize the components of the system and demonstrate production of droplets ranging in volume from 3 to 21 nL in a single microfluidic device. Furthermore, we describe the dynamic tuning of droplet composition. Finally, we demonstrate the production of droplet-templated cell spheroids from primary cells, where the mobility and simplicity of the setup enables its use within a biosafety cabinet. Taken together, we believe this minimal droplet setup is ideal to drive broad adoption of droplet microfluidics technology.
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ISSN:2072-666X
2072-666X
DOI:10.3390/mi13111823