From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again
Droplet-based microfluidic screening techniques can benefit from interfacing established microtiter plate-based screening and sample management workflows. Interfacing tools are required both for loading preconfigured microtiter-plate (MTP)-based sample collections into droplets and for dispensing th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Micromachines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/7/1022 |
| _version_ | 1827627803867086848 |
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| author | Thomas Henkel Günter Mayer Jörg Hampl Jialan Cao Linda Ehrhardt Andreas Schober Gregor Alexander Groß |
| author_facet | Thomas Henkel Günter Mayer Jörg Hampl Jialan Cao Linda Ehrhardt Andreas Schober Gregor Alexander Groß |
| author_sort | Thomas Henkel |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Droplet-based microfluidic screening techniques can benefit from interfacing established microtiter plate-based screening and sample management workflows. Interfacing tools are required both for loading preconfigured microtiter-plate (MTP)-based sample collections into droplets and for dispensing the used droplets samples back into MTPs for subsequent storage or further processing. Here, we present a collection of Digital Microfluidic Pipetting Tips (DMPTs) with integrated facilities for droplet generation and manipulation together with a robotic system for its operation. This combination serves as a bidirectional sampling interface for sample transfer from wells into droplets (w2d) and vice versa droplets into wells (d2w). The DMPT were designed to fit into 96-deep-well MTPs and prepared from glass by means of microsystems technology. The aspirated samples are converted into the channel-confined droplets’ sequences separated by an immiscible carrier medium. To comply with the demands of dose-response assays, up to three additional assay compound solutions can be added to the sample droplets. To enable different procedural assay protocols, four different DMPT variants were made. In this way, droplet series with gradually changing composition can be generated for, e.g., 2D screening purposes. The developed DMPT and their common fluidic connector are described here. To handle the opposite transfer d2w, a robotic transfer system was set up and is described briefly. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T13:21:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-063c4ed766144d13a76ce526c86c8f39 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-666X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T13:21:58Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Micromachines |
| spelling | doaj.art-063c4ed766144d13a76ce526c86c8f392023-11-30T21:28:51ZengMDPI AGMicromachines2072-666X2022-06-01137102210.3390/mi13071022From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back AgainThomas Henkel0Günter Mayer1Jörg Hampl2Jialan Cao3Linda Ehrhardt4Andreas Schober5Gregor Alexander Groß6Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Leibniz-IPHT, Albert-Einstein-Str. 9, 07745 Jena, GermanyLeibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Leibniz-IPHT, Albert-Einstein-Str. 9, 07745 Jena, GermanyDepartment of Nano-Biosystem Technology, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University Ilmenau, Prof.-Schmidt-Str. 26, 98693 Ilmenau, GermanyDepartment of Physical Chemistry and Microreaction Technologies, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University Ilmenau, Prof.-Schmidt-Str. 26, 98693 Ilmenau, GermanyDepartment of Physical Chemistry and Microreaction Technologies, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University Ilmenau, Prof.-Schmidt-Str. 26, 98693 Ilmenau, GermanyDepartment of Nano-Biosystem Technology, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University Ilmenau, Prof.-Schmidt-Str. 26, 98693 Ilmenau, GermanyDepartment of Physical Chemistry and Microreaction Technologies, Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Technical University Ilmenau, Prof.-Schmidt-Str. 26, 98693 Ilmenau, GermanyDroplet-based microfluidic screening techniques can benefit from interfacing established microtiter plate-based screening and sample management workflows. Interfacing tools are required both for loading preconfigured microtiter-plate (MTP)-based sample collections into droplets and for dispensing the used droplets samples back into MTPs for subsequent storage or further processing. Here, we present a collection of Digital Microfluidic Pipetting Tips (DMPTs) with integrated facilities for droplet generation and manipulation together with a robotic system for its operation. This combination serves as a bidirectional sampling interface for sample transfer from wells into droplets (w2d) and vice versa droplets into wells (d2w). The DMPT were designed to fit into 96-deep-well MTPs and prepared from glass by means of microsystems technology. The aspirated samples are converted into the channel-confined droplets’ sequences separated by an immiscible carrier medium. To comply with the demands of dose-response assays, up to three additional assay compound solutions can be added to the sample droplets. To enable different procedural assay protocols, four different DMPT variants were made. In this way, droplet series with gradually changing composition can be generated for, e.g., 2D screening purposes. The developed DMPT and their common fluidic connector are described here. To handle the opposite transfer d2w, a robotic transfer system was set up and is described briefly.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/7/1022microfluidicsmems deviceparallel to serialdroplet aspirationrobotictransfer |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Henkel Günter Mayer Jörg Hampl Jialan Cao Linda Ehrhardt Andreas Schober Gregor Alexander Groß From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again Micromachines microfluidics mems device parallel to serial droplet aspiration robotic transfer |
| title | From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again |
| title_full | From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again |
| title_fullStr | From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again |
| title_short | From Microtiter Plates to Droplets—There and Back Again |
| title_sort | from microtiter plates to droplets there and back again |
| topic | microfluidics mems device parallel to serial droplet aspiration robotic transfer |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/7/1022 |
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