Personalized and preventive medicine and pollution monitoring are examples that demand next-generation analytical devices that unlock the opportunity for faster, cheaper, and more sensitive screening and analysis. To address this need, scientists use microfluidics to generate isolated droplets that serve as micro-reactors to perform high-throughput (bio-)chemical assays. Incorporating dispersed beads in confined droplets has become popular to enhance the surface area for capturing analytes while decreasing the needed reaction volume. However, many challenges are still faced in handling beads, which can be labor-intensive and time-consuming. For this purpose, it is proposed to produce a radically new platform of spatially ordered arrays of immobilized colloidal particles, which can be eventually coupled with an automated high-throughput droplet dispenser in a joint-effort with ETH Zurich (Prof. Petra Dittrich). The arrays are produced by leveraging our recent advancements in the rubbing assembly of dry powders into ordered 2D structures1. A constant number of beads renders reactions more reproducible and efficient, while drastic surface enhancement will provide a more sensitive analysis.
Assignment
To realize such a high-throughput analytics platform (next-generation multiwell plate), the following tasks are identified:
· Assemble dry powder (non-functionalized) in an ordered monolayer and ordered array format
· Functionalize assembled beads to capture biomolecules selectively
· Functionalize particles and afterward assemble the functionalized beads
· Immobilize beads such that they are stable for fluidic applications