An X-ray transparent microfluidic platform for screening of the phase behavior of lipidic mesophases.

ABSTRACT: Lipidic mesophases are a class of highly ordered soft materials that form when certain lipids are mixed with water. Understanding the relationship between the composition and the microstructure of mesophases is necessary for fundamental studies of self-assembly in amphiphilic systems and for applications, such as the crystallization of membrane proteins. However, the laborious formulation protocol for highly viscous mesophases and the large amounts of material required for sample formulation are significant obstacles in such studies. Here we report a microfluidic platform that facilitates investigations of the phase behavior of mesophases by reducing sample consumption 300-fold, and automating and parallelizing sample formulation. The mesophases were formulated on-chip using less than 80 n

SUBMITTER: Khvostichenko DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3800112 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature