By Will Soutter
Dolomite, which designs and develops microfluidic devices, has succeeded in developing an advanced droplet system capable of encapsulating single beads or cells into droplets.
2.8µm diameter beads inside monodisperse droplets
This breakthrough droplet system is useful for a broad array of applications such as droplet PCR, high throughput screening, and single cell analysis. This novel system is a significant advancement in microfluidics offering users the tools needed to conduct assays on single cells in picoliter volumes.
This innovative microfluidic technology was illustrated by loading magnetic beads having a diameter of 2.8 µm into monodisperse droplets having a diameter of 100 µm at one bead per droplet ratio with very less bead losses.
The new droplet system, which features Dolomite’s typical microfluidic components, enables users to feed single beads or cells into droplets. The Mitos P-Pump is used to stir the input fluid reservoir in order to provide a homogenous distribution of beads and delivers a stable and pulseless flow for achieving superior control over droplet volumes.
Dolomite’s Multiflux Linear Connectors are used to form consistent leak-free connections from pump to tube to chip. To avoid cross-contamination of droplets, they are separated in an inert fluorocarbon carrier stream. To stabilize the droplets a biocompatible surfactant called Pico-Surf is used. Pico-Surf is specially designed to generate and stabilize pico-droplets.
Source: http://www.dolomite-microfluidics.com