Dr. Delai Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Microfluidic tools for high throughput chemistry and biotechnology

The intrinsic advantages that microfluidic tools afford â€" miniaturization, compartmentalization, and improved control of solution mixing â€" enable a host of chemical and biotechnological applications, including massively parallel, nanoliter-scale organic reactions and improved methods for protein crystallography. Compartmentalization of solutions into droplets also allows chemical signals to be transported without dispersion, a property that was utilized to develop the “chemistrode” â€" the chemical analog of an electrode. The chemistrode can chemically stimulate and sample a biological surface with high spatial and temporal resolution, and enables off-line analysis of the recorded dynamic molecular signals. Measurement of insulin secretion from a single pancreatic islet with 1.5-second time resolution was demonstrated using the chemistrode. To facilitate high-throughput screening of reagents for small-interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery, a microfluidic mixing device was designed to rapidly formulate lipid-siRNA nanoparticles with improved control over particle sizes. This formulation approach offered novel insights into the high-throughput screening process that led to the discovery of potent non-viral reagents for siRNA and DNA delivery. Future research in microfluidics will continue to increase the impact of these tools, ushering in next generation disease diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as basic discoveries in the organizing principles of biology.

For more information contact Prof. Andrew Lyon (404-894-4090).