Du Wenbin, Li Liang, Nichols Kevin P, Ismagilov Rustem F
Department of Chemistry and Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, The University of Chicago, 929 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Lab Chip. 2009 Aug 21;9(16):2286-92. doi: 10.1039/b908978k. Epub 2009 May 15.
The SlipChip is a microfluidic device designed to perform multiplexed microfluidic reactions without pumps or valves. The device has two plates in close contact. The bottom plate contains wells preloaded with many reagents; in this paper plates with 48 reagents were used. These wells are covered by the top plate that acts as a lid for the wells with reagents. The device also has a fluidic path, composed of ducts in the bottom plate and wells in the top plate, which is connected only when the top and bottom plate are aligned in a specific configuration. Sample can be added into the fluidic path, filling both wells and ducts. Then, the top plate is "slipped", or moved, relative to the bottom plate so the complementary patterns of wells in both plates overlap, exposing the sample-containing wells of the top plate to the reagent-containing wells of the bottom plate, and enabling diffusion and reactions. Between the two plates, a lubricating layer of fluorocarbon was used to facilitate relative motion of the plates. This paper implements this approach on a nanoliter scale using devices fabricated in glass. Stability of preloaded solutions, control of loading, and lack of cross-contamination were tested using fluorescent dyes. Functionality of the device was illustrated via crystallization of a model membrane protein. Fabrication of this device is simple and does not require a bonding step. This device requires no pumps or valves and is applicable to resource-poor settings. Overall, this device should be valuable for multiplexed applications that require exposing one sample to many reagents in small volumes. One may think of the SlipChip as an easy-to-use analogue of a preloaded multi-well plate, or a preloaded liquid-phase microarray.
滑移芯片是一种微流控装置，旨在无需泵或阀门即可进行多重微流控反应。该装置有两块紧密接触的板。底板包含预先装载有多种试剂的孔；在本文中使用了装有48种试剂的板。这些孔由顶板覆盖，顶板充当装有试剂的孔的盖子。该装置还有一条流体通道，由底板中的管道和顶板中的孔组成，只有当顶板和底板以特定配置对齐时才会连通。样品可以添加到流体通道中，填充孔和管道。然后，顶板相对于底板“滑动”或移动，使两块板中互补的孔图案重叠，将顶板中含有样品的孔暴露于底板中含有试剂的孔，从而实现扩散和反应。在两块板之间，使用了一层碳氟化合物润滑层来促进板的相对运动。本文使用玻璃制造的装置在纳升规模上实现了这种方法。使用荧光染料测试了预加载溶液的稳定性、加载控制和无交叉污染情况。通过一种模型膜蛋白的结晶展示了该装置的功能。该装置的制造简单，不需要键合步骤。该装置不需要泵或阀门，适用于资源匮乏的环境。总体而言，该装置对于需要将一个样品暴露于少量多种试剂的多重应用应该是有价值的。人们可以将滑移芯片视为一种易于使用的预加载多孔板或预加载液相微阵列的类似物。
