A facile route to the synthesis of monodisperse nanoscale liposomes using 3D microfluidic hydrodynamic focusing in a concentric capillary array.
A novel microscale device has been developed to enable the one-step continuous flow assembly of monodisperse nanoscale liposomes using three-dimensional microfluidic hydrodynamic focusing (3D-MHF) in a concentric capillary array. The 3D-MHF flow technique displays patent advantages over conventional methods for nanoscale liposome manufacture (i.e., bulk-scale alcohol injection and/or sonication) through the on-demand synthesis of consistently uniform liposomes without the need for post-processing strategies. Liposomes produced by the 3D-MHF device are of tunable size, have a factor of two improvement in polydispersity, and a production rate that is four orders of magnitude higher than previous MHF methods, which can be attributed to entirely radially symmetric diffusion of alcohol-solvated lipid into an aqueous flow stream. Moreover, the 3D-MHF platform is simple to construct from low-cost, commercially-available components, which obviates the need for advanced microfabrication strategies necessitated by previous MHF nanoparticle synthesis platforms.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Renee R
RR
Hood
Don L
DL
DeVoe
Javier
J
Atencia
Wyatt N
WN
Vreeland
Donna M
DM
Omiatek
D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
D008055:Lipids; D008081:Liposomes