Lab on a Chip Blog

This week’s HOT article comes from our Associate Editor, Professor Abraham Lee, along with Javier Prieto and their coworkers from the University of California. The paper introduces a device that uses dielectrophoretic principles for the characterisation and isolation of sub-populations of cells.

Using the automated dielectrophoretic assisted cell sorting (DACS) device, the group were able to enrich the neurons from a population of neural stem/progenitor cells and neurons using multiple discrete frequency bands, rather than at single frequencies.

The authors also used Monte-Carlo simulations to study the dielectric dispersions within the heterogeneous cell population, allowing them to predict the sorting efficiency of the device according to the trapping behaviour of different cell populations at different frequencies. This information was used to decide the optimal parameters with which to carry out the neuronal sorting, resulting in a 1.4-fold neuronal enrichment.

Frequency discretization in dielectrophoretic assisted cell sorting arrays to isolate neural cells
Javier L. Prieto,  Jente Lu,  Jamison L. Nourse,  Lisa A. Flanagan and Abraham P. Lee
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21184J

All our hot articles are free to access for four weeks (following a simple registration for individual users).

Linas Mazutis and Andrew Griffiths demonstrate a passive approach to selectively fuse droplets in 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 ratios.  They show that spontaneous droplet coalescence is dependant on the contact time between droplets before coalescence, and coverage by the surfactant.

Selective droplet coalescence using microfluidic systems
Linas Mazutis and Andrew D. Griffiths
Lab Chip, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC40121E

The second hot article is from Saif A. Khan and Suhanya Duraiswamy, who have come up with a way to avoid the problems caused by the evolution of bubbles of H₂ in the synthesis of nanoparticles on chips.  They inject a stream of N₂ gas into the microfluidic channels, which captures the H₂ before it can reach the threshold for bubble nucleation and have shown the method works for the synthesis of ultra-small gold nanocrystals.

Controlling bubbles using bubbles—microfluidic synthesis of ultra-small gold nanocrystals with gas-evolving reducing agents
Saif A. Khan and Suhanya Duraiswamy
Lab Chip, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21198J

Both these papers are free to access for 4 weeks following a simple registration for individual users.

We’re almost ready to wrap up for Easter here, but we have a few treats in the form of free* hot articles for you before we go!

First is a hot article from Piotr Garstecki and co-workers on their microfluidic device to screen hundreds of different cocktails of antibiotics to find combinations that will prove lethal to bacteria and overcome resistance:

Rapid screening of antibiotic toxicity in an automated microdroplet system
Krzysztof Churski,  Tomasz S. Kaminski,  Slawomir Jakiela,  Wojciech Kamysz,  Wioletta Baranska-Rybak,  Douglas B. Weibel and Piotr Garstecki
Lab Chip, 2012, 12, 1629-1637
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21284F

Next is a Critical Review from Samuel Sia and colleagues on the achievements and challenges in commercialising microfluidic point-of-care diagnostics devices, with advice based on their own experiences:

Commercialization of microfluidic point-of-care diagnostic devices
Curtis D. Chin,  Vincent Linder and Samuel K. Sia
Lab Chip, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21204H

And the final hot article is from Dong-Myung Kim and colleagues who have developed a new method for expression and capture of recombinant proteins on the same bead:

On-bead expression of recombinant proteins in an agarose gel matrix coated on a glass slide
Kyung-Ho Lee,  Ka-Young Lee,  Ju-Young Byun,  Byung-Gee Kim and Dong-Myung Kim
Lab Chip, 2012, 12, 1605-1610
DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21239K

Happy reading!

* Articles are free to access for individual users following a simple registration process