Study On Fabrication Process Of Protein Crystallization Microfluidic Chip

The Microfluidic Chip, one of the most active research fields, is a new analytical technology originating from early 90s of last century. It unveils the direction of the analytical instrument development. Newly emerging technologies have promoted the innovation of the Microfluidic Chips that are becoming more and more complicated and multi-functional. Thus, research into the microfluidic manufacture technologies has become a vital component of the microfluidic development. This paper studies novel fabrication methods for different requirements of microfluidic material for protein crystallization.The Microfluidic Chip for protein crystallization is an important analytical method for fast protein crystallization conditions screening which has great significance for the development of the structural biology and became a hot spot in the relevant area. We design a double-structure chip according to the requirement for the protein crystallization system with SU-8 photoresist as mold and PDMS as the formation material. The novel manufacture technologies of the SU-8 mold as well as the PDMS structure are studied. We research into the PDMS surface properties for water-in-oil emulsion or oil-in-water emulsion under different bonding methods which may let us to know better about the protein drop formation. The experimental results show that the water-in-oil droplet generation has a tendency towards a PDMS chip prepared by thermal diffusion bonding, while the oil-in-water droplet generation prefers a PDMS chip prepared by plasma bonding. The liquid velocity and the drop distribution are well controlled by packed air valve beneath the channel. The semicircular micro channel, which enables the thorough close of the valve, is fabricated with the innovated mold manufacture process. The protein crystallization experiment of Lysozyme protein is successfully performed in our Microfluidic Chip which proves the validity of this system and lays foundation for the successive High-throughput Screening for other protein.