Optoelectronic orchestrated microdroplet reactors for solid-phase reactions

Stanford researchers have developed a microfluidic system that uses optoelectronics for microdroplet manipulation to build synthetic oligonucleotides. Current solutions for building oligonucleotides suffer from high error rates, low yields as the chains get longer, and high solvent use and waste production.

The Stanford device (Figure 1) is inexpensively fabricated using standard PDMS soft lithography mass manufacturing technology. Multiple integrated microfluidic channels introduce single droplets of consistent size onto the optoelectronic substrate. The optoelectronics precisely encapsulates and decapsulates individual solid supports (i.e., polystyrene microbeads) with corresponding picoliter volume reagent microdroplets. Complete encapsulation ensures uniform reagent exposure, which reduces errors and improves the final yield rate significantly. In addition, picoliter droplet reactors replace microtiter plates, which reduces reagent consumption and waste generation by up to a million-fold. The Hesselink Group successfully demonstrated the on-chip enzymatic oligonucleotide coupling reaction and are adapting the platform for a wider range of reactions. This light-orchestrated microdroplet reactor platform provides quicker, more affordable, more efficient, and sustainable oligonucleotide synthesis.

FIgure 1 Schematic light-orchestrated microdroplet reactors for solid-phase reactions

Stage of Development – Prototype
The Hesselink Research Group successfully demonstrated ssDNA ligation through copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) using the platform. The group continues optimization and research expanding possible applications.