Applications of Microfluidic Enzymatic Microreactors in Proteomics

The principal field of application of enzymatic microreactors refers to protein and peptide mapping, an essential process in the identification and sequencing of proteins. Different developments and advances in the analysis of proteins by enzymatic microreactors are highlighted in this chapter. 

The following discussions present recent developments that may contribute to the development of new proteomic tools through microfluidic microreaction technology. 

To fulfill such requirements, attempts have been made in the past decade by researchers working on peptide mapping and proteomics through development of immobilized microfluidic enzymatic reactors. Microfluidic enzymatic microreactors are an alternative to in-solution method employing immobilization of proteases on microchaimels of chip-based reactors or surfaces of capillaries. The microreactors that enable proteolytic digestion by enzymes immobilized on solid supports are also referred to as immobilized enzyme reactors, IMERs. The great potential of IMERS for proteomic applications comprise rapid and enhance 

3 Enzyme Immobilization in Microfluidic Chips for Efficient Proteolysis 

Basically, all the advantages of immobilized enzymes in conventional reactors also apply to network of microchannels and capillaries [9]. Considering the large surface-to-volume ratio in microsystems, interfacial interactions play a significant role [8j. Owing to the predominant laminar flow and much stronger diffusion in these microsystems, kinetics are expected to be different from the large reactors. 

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