| This dissertation describes the development of microfluidic systems based on plugs and SlipChip, for applications in high throughput screening. The advancement of high throughput screening and assays benefits from miniaturization of fluid handling. Robotic systems automate the process of pipette-dispensing solutions into well plates and run on a much smaller scale, but these systems are expensive and inherit some intrinsic problems from dispensing solutions into open wells. Microfluidics handles small amounts (nanoliters to femtoliters) of fluids in enclosed chambers or channels consequently, it overcomes the intrinsic problems in robotic systems. Among microfluidics-based systems, valve-based microfluidics, compact-disc (CD)-based microfluidics, and droplet (plug)-based microfluidics are applicable to high throughput screening and assays. Valve-based and CD-based microfluidics performs thousands of nanoliter experiments in parallel, but the devices are complicated to manufacture and require expensive instrumentation to operate. Droplet (plug)-based microfluidics drives fluids by pumps and droplets form spontaneously, therefore it is less complicated. This thesis will discuss the development and improvement of methods using plug-based microfluidics to perform high throughput screening. It will also describe the development of the SlipChip, a new technology that accurately manipulates nanoliter fluids without any instruments. |
