title: Combinatorial microfluidic droplet engineering for biomimetic material synthesis.
abstract: Although droplet-based systems are used in a wide range of technologies, opportunities for systematically customizing their interface chemistries remain relatively unexplored. This article describes a new microfluidic strategy for rapidly tailoring emulsion droplet compositions and properties. The approach uses a simple platform for screening arrays of droplet-based microfluidic devices and couples this with combinatorial selection of the droplet compositions. Through the application of genetic algorithms over multiple screening rounds, droplets with target properties can be rapidly generated. The potential of this method is demonstrated by creating droplets with enhanced stability, where this is achieved by selecting carrier fluid chemistries that promote titanium dioxide formation at the droplet interfaces. The interface is a mixture of amorphous and crystalline phases, and the resulting composite droplets are biocompatible, supporting in vitro protein expression in their interiors. This general strategy will find widespread application in advancing emulsion properties for use in chemistry, biology, materials, and medicine.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Lukmaan A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Bawazer
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Ciara S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: McNally
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4808-8561
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Empson
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Marchant
authors.affiliation: Institute for Materials Research, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Tim P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Comyn
authors.affiliation: Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, U.K.
authors.forename: Xize
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Samsung Display, 465, Beonyeong-ro, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Soongwon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: School of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0719-6427
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McPherson
authors.affiliation: Surfactant & Colloid Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, U.K.
authors.forename: Bernard P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Binks
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: deMello
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, U.K.
authors.forename: Fiona C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Meldrum
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: C009495:titanium dioxide; D014025:Titanium
keywords: Biomineralization; artificial cell; bio-inspired; combinatorial; emulsion; genetic algorithm; microfluidics