Miniaturization of aqueous two-phase extraction for biological applications: From micro-tubes to microchannels.
Aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE) is a biocompatible liquid-liquid (L-L) separation technique that has been under research for several decades towards the purification of biomolecules, ranging from small metabolites to large animal cells. More recently, with the emergence of rapid-prototyping techniques for fabrication of microfluidic structures with intricate designs, ATPE gained an expanded range of applications utilizing physical phenomena occurring exclusively at the microscale. Today, research is being carried simultaneously in two different volume ranges, mL-scale (microtubes) and nL-scale (microchannels). The objective of this review is to give insight into the state of the art at both microtube and microchannel-scale and to analyze whether miniaturization is currently a competing or divergent technology in a field of applications including bioseparation, bioanalytics, enhanced fermentation processes, catalysis, high-throughput screening and physical/chemical compartmentalization. From our perspective, both approaches are worthy of investigation and, depending on the application, it is likely that either (i) one of the approaches will eventually become obsolete in particular research areas such as purification at the preparative scale or high-throughput screening applications; or (ii) both approaches will function as complementing techniques within the bioanalytics field.
Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC MN) and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Lisbon, Portugal.|IBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Ruben R G
RR
Soares
Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC MN) and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Lisbon, Portugal.|IBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Daniel F C
DF
Silva
IBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.|Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Pedro
P
Fernandes
IBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.|Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Ana M
AM
Azevedo
Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC MN) and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Lisbon, Portugal.
Virginia
V
Chu
Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores - Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias (INESC MN) and IN - Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Lisbon, Portugal.|Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
João P
JP
Conde
IBB - Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.|Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
M Raquel
MR
Aires-Barros
D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D005285:Fermentation; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D059625:Liquid-Liquid Extraction / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D008904:Miniaturization
D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned
Aqueous two-phase systems; Microchannel; Microfluidics; Partition; Separation