title: Droplet interfaced parallel and quantitative microfluidic-based separations.
abstract: High-throughput, quantitative, and rapid microfluidic-based separations has been a long-sought goal for applications in proteomics, genomics, biomarker discovery, and clinical diagnostics. Using droplet-interfaced microchip electrophoresis (MCE) techniques, we have developed a novel parallel MCE platform, based on the concept of combining the Slipchip principle with a newly developed "Gelchip". The platform consists of two plastic plates, with droplet wells on one plate and separation channels with preloaded/cured gel in the other. A single relative movement of one plate enables generation and then loading of multiple sample droplets in parallel into the separation channels, allowing electrophoretic separation of biomolecules in the droplets in parallel and with high-throughput. As proof of concept, we demonstrated the separation of 30 sub-nL sample droplets containing fluorescent dyes or DNA fragments.
authors.affiliation: †Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.
authors.forename: Sammer-ul
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.affiliation: ‡Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.|§Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.
authors.forename: Hywel
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: †Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.|§Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.
authors.forename: Xunli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: †Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.|§Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K. SO17 1BJ.
authors.forename: Xize
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Niu
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010316:Particle Size; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D004247:DNA