This Project aims for developing a versatile continuous-flow system for lysing microdroplet. Microdroplets have been widely utilized in diverse chemical and biological research and applications such as DNA sequencing or nanoparticle synthesis. Although highly robust and easy handling techniques of droplets are essential for those purposes, difficulties still remain in retrieving inner contents (e.g. cells, microbeads, biomolecules, reagents) of droplets for further experiments. Here we present a novel microfluidic system to achieve three distinctive accomplishments: (i) guiding droplets between different phase flows, oil flow and water flow, (ii) rapid washing process of surfactant on droplets, and (iii) quick and easy lysing of droplets and releasing their contents into water flow. The presented system offers a high-throughput method to wash and water-in-oil droplets for expanding droplet-based applications.
Project end date: 08/15/14