title: Droplet-based microfluidics in drug discovery, transcriptomics and high-throughput molecular genetics.
abstract: Droplet-based microfluidics enables assays to be carried out at very high throughput (up to thousands of samples per second) and enables researchers to work with very limited material, such as primary cells, patient's biopsies or expensive reagents. An additional strength of the technology is the possibility to perform large-scale genotypic or phenotypic screens at the single-cell level. Here we critically review the latest developments in antibody screening, drug discovery and highly multiplexed genomic applications such as targeted genetic workflows, single-cell RNAseq and single-cell ChIPseq. Starting with a comprehensive introduction for non-experts, we pinpoint current limitations, analyze how they might be overcome and give an outlook on exciting future applications.
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, Germany. merten@embl.de.
authors.forename: Nachiket
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shembekar
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, Germany. merten@embl.de.
authors.forename: Chawaree
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chaipan
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, Germany. merten@embl.de.
authors.forename: Ramesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Utharala
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genome Biology Unit, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, Germany. merten@embl.de.
authors.forename: Christoph A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Merten
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*