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Nanoliter Centrifugal Liquid Dispenser Coupled with Superhydrophobic Microwell Array Chips for High-Throughput Cell Assays

Authors :
Xiaofang Chen
Jianxiong Zhang
Peng Liu
Wang Yuyi
Wu Yushuai
Chen Yue
Source :
Micromachines, Vol 9, Iss 6, p 286 (2018), Micromachines, Volume 9, Issue 6
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2018.

Abstract

Microfluidic systems have been regarded as a potential platform for high-throughput screening technology in drug discovery due to their low sample consumption, high integration, and easy operation. The handling of small-volume liquid is an essential operation in microfluidic systems, especially in investigating large-scale combination conditions. Here, we develop a nanoliter centrifugal liquid dispenser (NanoCLD) coupled with superhydrophobic microwell array chips for high-throughput cell-based assays in the nanoliter scale. The NanoCLD consists of a plastic stock block with an array of drilled through holes, a reagent microwell array chip (reagent chip), and an alignment bottom assembled together in a fixture. A simple centrifugation at 800 rpm can dispense ~160 nL reagents into microwells in 5 min. The dispensed reagents are then delivered to cells by sandwiching the reagent chip upside down with another microwell array chip (cell chip) on which cells are cultured. A gradient of doxorubicin is then dispensed to the cell chip using the NanoCLD for validating the feasibility of performing drug tests on our microchip platform. This novel nanoliter-volume liquid dispensing method is simple, easy to operate, and especially suitable for repeatedly dispensing many different reagents simultaneously to microwells.

Details

Language :
English
Volume :
9
Issue :
6
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Micromachines
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....a1c357b12b8ee781d670ab41705c20f6