Oil-isolated hydrogel microstructures for sensitive bioassays on-chip.

ABSTRACT: Multiplexed, sensitive, and on-chip molecular diagnostic assays are essential in both clinical and research settings. In past work, running reactions in nanoliter- to femtoliter-sized volumes such as microwells or droplets has led to significant increases in detection sensitivities. At the same time, hydrogels have emerged as attractive scaffolds for bioassays due to their nonfouling, flexible, and aqueous properties. In this paper, we combine these concepts and develop a novel platform in which hydrogel compartments are used as individually confined reaction volumes within a fluorinated oil phase. We fabricate functional and versatile hydrogel microstructures in microfluidic channels that are physically isolated from each other using a surfactant-free fluorinated oil phase, generating pic

SUBMITTER: Srinivas RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4063796 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature