• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.146-153
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• 2006

A passive microfluidic delivery system using hydrophobic valving and pneumatic control was devised for microfluidic handling on a chip. The microfluidic metering, cutting, transport, and merging of two liquids on the chip were correctly performed. The error range of the accuracy of microfluid metering was below 4% on a 20 nL scale, which showed that microfluid was easily manipulated with the desired volume on a chip. For a study of the feasibility of biochemical reactions on the chip, a single enzymatic reaction, such as ${\beta}-galactosidase$ reaction, was performed. The detection limit of the substrate, i.e. fluorescein $di-{\beta}-galactopyranoside$ (FDG) of the ${\beta}-galactosidase$ (6.7 fM), was about 76 pM. Additionally, multiple biochemical reactions such as in vitro protein synthesis of enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) were successfully demonstrated at the nanoliter scale, which suggests that our microfluidic chip can be applied not only to miniaturization of various biochemical reactions, but also to development of the microfluidic biochemical reaction system requiring a precise nano-scale control.

• International Journal of Vascular Biomedical Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

Microsystems create new opportunities for conventional cell analysis by combining microfluidics and flow cytometry. This article describes recent developments in conventional flow cytometers and related microfluidic flow cytometers to detect, analyze, and sort cells or particles. Flow cytometry strongly consisted of fluidics, optics and electronics requires a large space to equip various components, which are mostly the fluidic components such as compressor, fluid handling system. Adopting microfluidics into flow cytometry enables volume- and power-efficient, inexpensive and flexible analysis of particulate samples. In this paper, we review various efforts that take advantage of novel techniques to build microfluidic cell analysis systems with high-speed analytical capability. Highly integrated microfluidic cytometry shows great promise for basic biomedical and pharmaceutical research, and robust and portable point-of-care devices could be used in clinical settings.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.717-720
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• 2003

A chromogenic biosensor employing microfluidics on a chip has been developed for the determination of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (HDL-C) in human serum. We have investigated a plain and effective method to immobilize enzymes within the microchip without chemically modifying micro-channel or technically micro-fabricating column reactor and fluid channel network. In assessing risk factors of coronary heart disease, a micro-chip system would minimize requirements of instrument and reagent handling.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-362
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• 2014

We have developed a fully automated high throughput drug screening (HTDS) system based on the microfluidic cell culture array to perform combinational chemotherapy. This system has 64 individually addressable cell culture chambers where the sequential combinatorial concentrations of two different drugs can be generated by two microfluidic diffusive mixers. Each diffusive mixer has two integrated micropumps connected to the media and the drug reservoirs respectively for generating the desired combination without the need for any extra equipment to perfuse the solution such as syringe pumps. The cell array is periodically exposed to the drug combination with the programmed LabVIEW system during a couple of days without extra handling after seeding the cells into the microfluidic device and also, this device does not require the continuous generation of solutions compared to the previous systems. Therefore, the total amount of drug being consumed per experiment is less than a few hundred micro liters in each reservoir. The utility of this system is demonstrated through investigating the viability of the prostate cancer PC3 cell line with the combinational treatments of curcumin and tumor necrosis factor-alpha related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL). Our results suggest that the system can be used for screening and optimizing drug combination with a small amount of reagent for combinatorial chemotherapy against cancer cells.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1521_1522
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• 2009

Chemotaxis is the directed movement of cells in gradients of signaling molecules, an essential biological process that underlies morhpogenesis during development, and the recruitment of immune cells to sites of infection. Especially, bacterial chemotaxis has utilized as an important prelude to study metabolism, prey-predator relationship, symbiosis, other ecological interactions in microbial communities. Recently, novel analytical formats integrated with microfluidics were introduced to investigate the chemotaxis of the cells with the precise control of chemical gradient and small volume of cells. In this study, we present a method to detect bacterial chemotaxis by direct fluidic contacting. The developed fluidic-handling method is driven by capillary force, hydrophobic barrier and a cohesion force between fluids. We have investigated the chemotactic response of E Coli. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to three kinds of chemoeffectors such as HEPES buffer, peptone and chloroform.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.2 s.245
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• pp.110-116
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• 2006

A syringe pump or a device using high electric voltage has been used for controlling flows inside a LOC (lab-on-a-chip). Compared to LOC, however, these microfluidic devices are large and heavy that they are burdensome for a portable ${\mu}-TAS$ (micro total analysis system). In this study, a new flow control technique employing pressure regulators and pressure chambers was developed. This technique utilizes compressed air to control the micro-scale flow inside a LOC, instead of a mechanical actuator or an electric power supply. The pressure regulator controls the output air pressure by adjusting the variable resistor attached. We checked the feasibility of this system by measuring the flow rate inside a capillary tube of $100{\mu}m$ diameter in the Re numbers ranged from 0.5 to 50. In addition, the performance of this flow control system was compared with that of a conventional syringe pump. The developed flow control system was found to show superior performance, compared with the syringe pump. It maintains automatically the: air pressure inside a pressure chamber whether the flow inside the capillary tube is on or off. Since the flow rate is nearly proportional to the resistance, we can control flow in multiple microchannels precisely. However, the syringe pump shows large variation of flow rate when the fluid flow is blocked in the microchannel.