Lab on a Chip Blog

This paper featured in Chemistry World describes a device developed by scientists in China that can control the production of multiple emulsion systems. The system could be used to encapsulate incompatible drug ingredients and to design multi-compartment materials, they say.

Optical micrographs of monodisperse sextuple-component triple emulsions, containing one water-in-oil single emulsion and two oil-in-water-in-oil double emulsions

Multiple emulsions are liquid systems in which emulsion droplets are placed inside each other, each droplet smaller than the last, creating ‘levels’. Microfluidic devices have been designed to produce such systems, but controlling the number, size and ratio of droplets at each level is difficult, especially when developing a system that has different types of emulsion droplets at the same level. Control over such multi-compartment levels would allow more precise encapsulation and the development of more advanced materials.

Liang-Yin Chu at Sichuan University and colleagues have designed a microfluidic device capable of producing multi-compartment multiple emulsions. Chu says: ‘We hope the novel type of emulsions in our work will open a new gate for the applications of emulsions in the fields of template synthesis, synergistic delivery, micro reactions, bioassay and so on.’

For the full story read Harriet Brewerton’s Chemistry World article or download the paper here:

Controllable microfluidic production of multicomponent multiple emulsions
Wei Wang, Rui Xie, Xiao-Jie Ju, Tao Luo, Li Liu, David A. Weitz and Liang-Yin Chu
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 1587-1592
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20065H

More than 100 embryos could be cultured in an area smaller than a credit card

The latest LOC article to be highlighted in Chemistry World is Michael Richardson‘s paper showing for the first time that an animal embryo can develop in a microfluidic environment. Their discovery could find application in high-throughput, low-cost assays for drug screening and life sciences research.

Zebrafish embryos are becoming important animal models, bridging the gap between cell culture assays and whole animal testing, and have found use in disease modelling and drug safety prediction assays. These assays are currently performed in microtitre plates and require periodic replacement of the buffer solution, which can cause stress or damage to the embryos. Now, Michael Richardson, from Leiden University, and coworkers have developed a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device in which the buffer solution can flow continuously through the system, and have successfully raised zebrafish embryos under these conditions.

The team made the device from three layers of borosilicate glass with an array of temperature-controlled wells connected by channels; each well houses a single zebrafish embryo. The growth and development of embryos in the microchip was investigated following a five-day culture. Some minor phenotypic variations, such as reduced body length, were found in the microchip-raised embryos; however, there was no significant increase in other abnormalities compared with control experiments.

To find out more read Sarah Farley’s Chemisty World story here or download the paper:

Zebrafish embryo development in a microfluidic flow-through system
Eric M. Wielhouwer, Shaukat Ali, Abdulrahman Al-Afandi, Marko T. Blom, Marinus B. Olde Riekerink, Christian Poelma, Jerry Westerweel, Johannes Oonk, Elwin X. Vrouwe, Wilfred Buesink, Harald G. J. vanMil, Jonathan Chicken, Ronny van ‘t Oever and Michael K. Richardson
Lab Chip, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0LC00443J