skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Rapid and continuous magnetic separation in droplet microfluidic devices

Abstract

Here, we present a droplet microfluidic method to extract molecules of interest from a droplet in a rapid and continuous fashion. We accomplish this by first marginalizing functionalized super-paramagnetic beads within the droplet using a magnetic field, and then splitting the droplet into one droplet containing the majority of magnetic beads and one droplet containing the minority fraction. We quantitatively analysed the factors which affect the efficiency of marginalization and droplet splitting to optimize the enrichment of magnetic beads. We first characterized the interplay between the droplet velocity and the strength of the magnetic field and its effect on marginalization. We found that marginalization is optimal at the midline of the magnet and that marginalization is a good predictor of bead enrichment through splitting at low to moderate droplet velocities. Finally, we focused our efforts on manipulating the splitting profile to improve the enrichment provided by asymmetric splitting. We designed asymmetric splitting forks that employ capillary effects to preferentially extract the bead-rich regions of the droplets. Our strategy represents a framework to optimize magnetic bead enrichment methods tailored to the requirements of specific droplet-based applications. We anticipate that our separation technology is well suited for applications in single-cell genomics andmore » proteomics. In particular, our method could be used to separate mRNA bound to poly-dT functionalized magnetic microparticles from single cell lysates to prepare single-cell cDNA libraries.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1346969
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-98CH10886
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Lab on a chip (Print)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 15; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1473-0197
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; 60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Brouzes, Eric, Kruse, Travis, Kimmerling, Robert, and Strey, Helmut H. Rapid and continuous magnetic separation in droplet microfluidic devices. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1039/c4lc01327a.
Brouzes, Eric, Kruse, Travis, Kimmerling, Robert, & Strey, Helmut H. Rapid and continuous magnetic separation in droplet microfluidic devices. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4lc01327a
Brouzes, Eric, Kruse, Travis, Kimmerling, Robert, and Strey, Helmut H. 2014. "Rapid and continuous magnetic separation in droplet microfluidic devices". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c4lc01327a. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1346969.
@article{osti_1346969,
title = {Rapid and continuous magnetic separation in droplet microfluidic devices},
author = {Brouzes, Eric and Kruse, Travis and Kimmerling, Robert and Strey, Helmut H.},
abstractNote = {Here, we present a droplet microfluidic method to extract molecules of interest from a droplet in a rapid and continuous fashion. We accomplish this by first marginalizing functionalized super-paramagnetic beads within the droplet using a magnetic field, and then splitting the droplet into one droplet containing the majority of magnetic beads and one droplet containing the minority fraction. We quantitatively analysed the factors which affect the efficiency of marginalization and droplet splitting to optimize the enrichment of magnetic beads. We first characterized the interplay between the droplet velocity and the strength of the magnetic field and its effect on marginalization. We found that marginalization is optimal at the midline of the magnet and that marginalization is a good predictor of bead enrichment through splitting at low to moderate droplet velocities. Finally, we focused our efforts on manipulating the splitting profile to improve the enrichment provided by asymmetric splitting. We designed asymmetric splitting forks that employ capillary effects to preferentially extract the bead-rich regions of the droplets. Our strategy represents a framework to optimize magnetic bead enrichment methods tailored to the requirements of specific droplet-based applications. We anticipate that our separation technology is well suited for applications in single-cell genomics and proteomics. In particular, our method could be used to separate mRNA bound to poly-dT functionalized magnetic microparticles from single cell lysates to prepare single-cell cDNA libraries.},
doi = {10.1039/c4lc01327a},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1346969}, journal = {Lab on a chip (Print)},
issn = {1473-0197},
number = 3,
volume = 15,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 03 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Wed Dec 03 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 65 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

High-Throughput Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction in Picoliter Droplets
journal, December 2008


Continuous-Flow Polymerase Chain Reaction of Single-Copy DNA in Microfluidic Microdroplets
journal, January 2009


Integrated microfluidic bioprocessor for single-cell gene expression analysis
journal, December 2008


Microdroplet-based PCR enrichment for large-scale targeted sequencing
journal, November 2009


Droplet-Based Microfluidic Systems for High-Throughput Single DNA Molecule Isothermal Amplification and Analysis
journal, June 2009


Reactions in Droplets in Microfluidic Channels
journal, November 2006


Microdroplets in Microfluidics: An Evolving Platform for Discoveries in Chemistry and Biology
journal, June 2010


Ultrahigh-throughput screening in drop-based microfluidics for directed evolution
journal, February 2010


High-throughput screening for industrial enzyme production hosts by droplet microfluidics
journal, January 2014


High-resolution dose-response screening using droplet-based microfluidics
journal, December 2011


Quantitative and sensitive detection of rare mutations using droplet-based microfluidics
journal, January 2011


Droplet-Based Microfluidic Platforms for the Encapsulation and Screening of Mammalian Cells and Multicellular Organisms
journal, May 2008


Drop-based microfluidic devices for encapsulation of single cells
journal, January 2008


Droplet microfluidic technology for single-cell high-throughput screening
journal, July 2009


High-Performance Single Cell Genetic Analysis Using Microfluidic Emulsion Generator Arrays
journal, April 2010


Single-Cell Forensic Short Tandem Repeat Typing within Microfluidic Droplets
journal, November 2013


Dynamic Pattern Formation in a Vesicle-Generating Microfluidic Device
journal, April 2001


Formation of dispersions using “flow focusing” in microchannels
journal, January 2003


Microfluidic Production of Droplet Pairs
journal, October 2008


Electrocoalescence of drops synchronized by size-dependent flow in microfluidic channels
journal, June 2006


Selective droplet coalescence using microfluidic systems
journal, January 2012


High-throughput injection with microfluidics using picoinjectors
journal, October 2010


Experimental test of scaling of mixing by chaotic advection in droplets moving through microfluidic channels
journal, December 2003


Reliable microfluidic on-chip incubation of droplets in delay-lines
journal, January 2009


Dielectrophoretic manipulation of drops for high-speed microfluidic sorting devices
journal, January 2006


Geometrically Mediated Breakup of Drops in Microfluidic Devices
journal, February 2004


Design of microfluidic channel geometries for the control of droplet volume, chemical concentration, and sorting
journal, January 2004


Production of arrays of chemically distinct nanolitre plugs via repeated splitting in microfluidic devices
journal, January 2006


Coalescence and splitting of confined droplets at microfluidic junctions
journal, January 2009


Droplet breakup in microfluidic T-junctions at small capillary numbers
journal, July 2009


Droplet breakup in flow past an obstacle: A capillary instability due to permeability variations
journal, December 2010


Obstructed Breakup of Slender Drops in a Microfluidic T Junction
journal, June 2012


Passive breakups of isolated drops and one-dimensional assemblies of drops in microfluidic geometries: experiments and models
journal, January 2013


Mutant of Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase exhibits higher resistance to common RT-qPCR inhibitors
journal, May 2010


Overcoming Inhibition in Real-Time Diagnostic PCR
book, September 2012


High-throughput microfluidic single-cell RT-qPCR
journal, August 2011


Ultrahigh-Throughput Mammalian Single-Cell Reverse-Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction in Microfluidic Drops
journal, August 2013


Analysis of gene expression at the single-cell level using microdroplet-based microfluidic technology
journal, June 2011


Droplet microfluidics with magnetic beads: a new tool to investigate drug–protein interactions
journal, October 2010


Continuous-flow in-droplet magnetic particle separation in a droplet-based microfluidic platform
journal, April 2012


High-throughput sequencing of the paired human immunoglobulin heavy and light chain repertoire
journal, January 2013


The promise and challenge of high-throughput sequencing of the antibody repertoire
journal, January 2014


Efficient in-droplet separation of magnetic particles for digital microfluidics
journal, September 2007


Meniscus-Assisted High-Efficiency Magnetic Collection and Separation for EWOD Droplet Microfluidics
journal, April 2009


Magnetism and microfluidics
journal, January 2006


Microfluidic Applications of Magnetic Particles for Biological Analysis and Catalysis
journal, March 2010


Characterisation of Dynabeads® by magnetization measurements and Mössbauer spectroscopy
journal, May 2005


The force acting on a superparamagnetic bead due to an applied magnetic field
journal, January 2007


Dynamics of microfluidic droplets
journal, January 2010


Imaging and quantifying mixing in a model droplet micromixer
journal, June 2005


Three-dimensional measurement and visualization of internal flow of a moving droplet using confocal micro-PIV
journal, January 2007


On the flow topology inside droplets moving in rectangular microchannels
journal, January 2014


Rotational dynamics in dipolar colloidal suspensions: video microscopy experiments and simulations results
journal, February 2002


Microfluidic high-throughput encapsulation and hydrodynamic self-sorting of single cells
journal, March 2008


Controlled encapsulation of single-cells into monodisperse picolitre drops
journal, January 2008


Locally enhanced concentration and detection of oligonucleotides in a plug-based microfluidic device
journal, January 2012


Field-free particle focusing in microfluidic plugs
journal, June 2012


A low cost and high throughput magnetic bead-based immuno-agglutination assay in confined droplets
journal, January 2013


Breakup of microdroplets in asymmetric T junctions
journal, May 2013


Droplet breakup in an asymmetric microfluidic T junction
journal, August 2011


Active transport: a new chemical separation method?
journal, January 2006


Simple, robust storage of drops and fluids in a microfluidic device
journal, January 2009


Droplet breakup in microfluidic junctions of arbitrary angles
journal, September 2006


Trapping Microfluidic Drops in Wells of Surface Energy
journal, September 2011


Precise pooling and dispensing of microfluidic droplets towards micro- to macro-world interfacing
journal, January 2014


Works referencing / citing this record:

Nano and Microtechnologies for the Study of Magnetotactic Bacteria
journal, July 2019


Continuous magnetic droplets and microfluidics: generation, manipulation, synthesis and detection
journal, January 2019


Passive sorting of emulsion droplets with different interfacial properties using laser-patterned surfaces
journal, April 2019


In-droplet microparticle washing and enrichment using surface acoustic wave-driven acoustic radiation force
journal, January 2018


Microfluidic diamagnetic water-in-water droplets: a biocompatible cell encapsulation and manipulation platform
journal, January 2018


Migration of ferrofluid droplets in shear flow under a uniform magnetic field
journal, January 2019


Droplet CAR-Wash: continuous picoliter-scale immunocapture and washing
journal, January 2019


An intra-droplet particle switch for droplet microfluidics using bulk acoustic waves
journal, May 2017


An intra-droplet particle switch for droplet microfluidics using bulk acoustic waves
journal, May 2017


Bead mediated separation of microparticles in droplets
journal, March 2017


Microfluidic-Based Droplet and Cell Manipulations Using Artificial Bacterial Flagella
journal, February 2016