[Frontiers in Bioscience E4, 1768-1779, January 1, 2012]

Micro segmented-flow in biochemical and cell-based assays

Jenifer Clausell-Tormos1, Christoph A. Merten2

1Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO), C/ Melchor Fernandez Almagro 3, Madrid, 28029 Spain, 2Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, Heidelberg, 69117 Germany

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
2.1 .Segmented-flow microfluidics as an alternative to conventional screening formats
2.2 .Segmented-flow and emulsions
2.3 .Generation of plugs
2.4 .Detection systems
3. Biochemical assays
3.1 .Protein crystallization
3.2 .Screening of active catalysts using genetic algorithms
3.3 .Enzyme kinetics
3.4 .Analysis of cell lysates using capillary electrophoresis
4. Cell-based assays
4.1 .Encapsulation of cells and multicellular organisms
4.2 .Cell-based assays at superb spatio-temporal resolution
5. Discussion and outlook
6. Acknowledgements
7. References

1. ABSTRACT

Micro-segmented flow (e.g. in microfluidic channels, capillaries or a length of tubing) has become a promising technique in modern biology. Compared to conventional formats such as microtiter plates, sample volumes can be reduced about 1000-fold, thus allowing a massive reduction of assay costs and the use of samples available in low quantities, only (e.g. primary cells). Furthermore, assays can be highly parallelized and performed at superb spatio-temporal resolution. Here, we review the state-of-the-art in micro-segmented flow as applied in biochemical, cell- and multicellular organisms-based assays. We discuss likely future applications such as single cell / single organism proteomics and transcriptomics and point out the specific advantages and limitations compared to emulsion-based (droplet-based) approaches.