Microfluidic platform enables tailored translocation and reaction cascades in nanoliter droplet networks

Commun Biol. 2020 Dec 14;3(1):769. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01489-w.

Abstract

In the field of bottom-up synthetic biology, lipid membranes are the scaffold to create minimal cells and mimic reactions and processes at or across the membrane. In this context, we employ here a versatile microfluidic platform that enables precise positioning of nanoliter droplets with user-specified lipid compositions and in a defined pattern. Adjacent droplets make contact and form a droplet interface bilayer to simulate cellular membranes. Translocation of molecules across membranes are tailored by the addition of alpha-hemolysin to selected droplets. Moreover, we developed a protocol to analyze the translocation of non-fluorescent molecules between droplets with mass spectrometry. Our method is capable of automated formation of one- and two-dimensional droplet networks, which we demonstrated by connecting droplets containing different compound and enzyme solutions to perform translocation experiments and a multistep enzymatic cascade reaction across the droplet network. Our platform opens doors for creating complex artificial systems for bottom-up synthetic biology.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Catalysis
  • Enzymes / chemistry
  • Enzymes / metabolism
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques*
  • Microfluidics* / instrumentation
  • Microfluidics* / methods
  • Nanotechnology

Substances

  • Enzymes