Integration of optical manipulation in 3D printed microfluidic devices (Conference Presentation)
(2020)
Thanks to recent and continuing technological innovations, modern microfluidic systems are increasingly offering researchers working across all fields of biotechnology exciting new possibilities (especially with respect to facilitating high throughput analysis, portability, and parallelization). The advantages offered by microfluidic devices—namely, the substantially lowered chemical and sample consumption they require, the increased energy and mass transfer they offer, and their comparatively small size—can potentially be leveraged in every sub-field of biotechnology. However, to date, most of the reported devices have been deployed in furtherance of healthcare, pharmaceutical, and/or industrial applications. In this review, we consider examples of microfluidic and miniaturized systems across biotechnology sub-fields. In this context, we point out the advantages of microfluidics for various applications and highlight the common features of devices and the potential for transferability to other application areas. This will provide incentives for increased collaboration between researchers from different disciplines in the field of biotechnology.
In order to screen for optimal bioprocess parameters at higher throughput, researchers developing new biopharmaceuticals are increasingly turning to miniaturized cultivation systems with reduced space and media consumption. However, these systems still face challenges related to the continuous monitoring of critical bioprocess parameters, in particular, because sensor integration is often difficult, and sample volumes for offline measurements are limited. In this work, a novel 3D-printed microfluidic lab-on-a-chip sensor platform is presented, specifically designed to be compatible with a range of cultivation systems (including shake flasks, bioreactors, and custom microbioreactors). The microfluidic system acts as a miniaturized bypass, integrating sensors for real-time monitoring of key bioprocess parameters (such as pH, pO₂, pCO₂, glucose, and lactate) without compromising culture volume. This system has been successfully applied in a proof-of-concept for the cultivation of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition, this platform also includes an integrated sampling unit for small-volume collection, thereby potentially enabling the analysis of complex analyte mixtures such as amino acids or recombinant proteins. The presented system thus represents a valuable tool for both real-time online monitoring and offline analysis, contributing to the optimization of biopharmaceutical production processes.
