Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, Schanzenstrasse 44, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Lab Chip. 2024 Feb 27;24(5):1064-1075. doi: 10.1039/d3lc01024d.
Multiwell plates are prominent in the biological and chemical sciences; however, they face limitations in terms of throughput and deployment in emerging bioengineering fields. Droplet microarrays, as an open microfluidic technology, organise tiny droplets typically in the order of thousands, on an accessible plate. In this perspective, we summarise current approaches for generating droplets, fluid handling on them, and analysis within droplet microarrays. By enabling unique plate engineering opportunities, demonstrating the necessary experimental procedures required for manipulating and interacting with biological cells, and integrating with label-free analytical techniques, droplet microarrays can be deployed across a more extensive experimental domain than what is currently covered by multiwell plates. Droplet microarrays thus offer a solution to the bottlenecks associated with multiwell plates, particularly in the areas of biological cultivation and high-throughput compound screening.
多孔板在生物和化学科学中应用广泛；然而，在新兴的生物工程领域中，它们在通量和应用方面存在局限性。作为一种开放式微流控技术的液滴微阵列，可以在一个易于操作的平板上排列数以千计的微小液滴。在这个视角下，我们总结了当前用于生成液滴、在液滴上处理流体以及在液滴微阵列中进行分析的方法。通过提供独特的平板工程机会、展示操作和与生物细胞相互作用所需的必要实验程序，并与无标记分析技术集成，液滴微阵列可以在比多孔板更广泛的实验领域中得到应用。因此，液滴微阵列为解决多孔板相关的瓶颈问题提供了一种解决方案，特别是在生物培养和高通量化合物筛选方面。
