title: A robotics platform for automated batch fabrication of high density, microfluidics-based DNA microarrays, with applications to single cell, multiplex assays of secreted proteins.
abstract: Microfluidics flow-patterning has been utilized for the construction of chip-scale miniaturized DNA and protein barcode arrays. Such arrays have been used for specific clinical and fundamental investigations in which many proteins are assayed from single cells or other small sample sizes. However, flow-patterned arrays are hand-prepared, and so are impractical for broad applications. We describe an integrated robotics/microfluidics platform for the automated preparation of such arrays, and we apply it to the batch fabrication of up to eighteen chips of flow-patterned DNA barcodes. The resulting substrates are comparable in quality with hand-made arrays and exhibit excellent substrate-to-substrate consistency. We demonstrate the utility and reproducibility of robotics-patterned barcodes by utilizing two flow-patterned chips for highly parallel assays of a panel of secreted proteins from single macrophage cells.
authors.affiliation: NanoSystems Biology Cancer Center and Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, MC 127-72, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Habib
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: Young Shik
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Kiwook
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Lidong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Russell-John
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Krom
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Heath
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D002460:Cell Line; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins