Synthesis and Applications of Complex Microparticles Using Microfluidic Devices

Abstract

Microfluidic devices offer the ability to finely control physical and chemical conditions which is advantageous for materials synthesis. Several groups have used multi-phase microflows to produce microparticles and capsules. Surface tension limits these particles to be spheroids. In this talk we will introduce a new technique entitled Stop Flow Lithography (SFL) which couples microfluidics and projection lithography to create microparticles with unprecedented chemical and geometric complexity. We will first demonstrate the versatility of SFL by showing how it can be used to create materials ranging from soft cell-laden microgel blocks for applications in tissue engineering to ceramic microcomponents for MEMs to TMV virus-patterned particles. Next we will discuss a specific application of SFL to create barcoded microparticles for highly multiplexed bioassays. Our new barcoding approach not only outperforms existing technologies in terms of multiplexing capability, but has better sensitivity, specificity and is much more versatile. Specific application to miRNA sensing will be discussed.