The promise of macromolecular crystallization in microfluidic chips.
Microfluidics, or lab-on-a-chip technology, is proving to be a powerful, rapid, and efficient approach to a wide variety of bioanalytical and microscale biopreparative needs. The low materials consumption, combined with the potential for packing a large number of experiments in a few cubic centimeters, makes it an attractive technique for both initial screening and subsequent optimization of macromolecular crystallization conditions. Screening operations, which require a macromolecule solution with a standard set of premixed solutions, are relatively straightforward and have been successfully demonstrated in a microfluidics platform. Optimization methods, in which crystallization solutions are independently formulated from a range of stock solutions, are considerably more complex and have yet to be demonstrated. To be competitive with either approach, a microfluidics system must offer ease of operation, be able to maintain a sealed environment over several weeks to months, and give ready access for the observation and harvesting of crystals as they are grown.
van der Woerd
Mark
M
Universities Space Research Association, National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Marshall Space Flight Center, Mail Code SD46, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA.
Ferree
Darren
D
Pusey
Marc
M
D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry; D003460:Crystallization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
D001704:Biopolymers; D046911:Macromolecular Substances