Microscopy image of a microtrap array showing the capture of large 16-micrometer-diameter beads in surface traps. Smaller 8-micrometer-diameter beads accumulate in the underlying dispersion gap. Credit: A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics Biological assays are an integral part of the researcher’s toolkit in the fields of biomolecular chemistry and genomics. Microfluidic microbead systems, which consist of arrays of beads coated with an assay-specific reagent, have revolutionized biological assay technology by allowing the high-throughput detection of target molecules from small sample volumes. Fabrication of the microbead systems, however, requires great care and various ancillary devices. Chee Chung Wong and colleagues from the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics have now developed a passive and robust method for manufacturing sorted arrays of multiple microbead types. The preparation of microbead systems conventionally involves the use of a pump to introduce a bead-carrying fluid into a microfluidic circuit. The beads then adsorb to the walls of the microchannels with little control over position or sorting. The resultant microbead-coated channels can be used for targeted molecule detection, but the beads can be easily dislodged by flow. Read more at: Phys.org
The post A passive method for sorting and fixing microbeads of different sizes has been published on Technology Org.
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