Microfluidic Bioreactors

Heo, J., Thomas, K.J., Seong, G.H., Crooks, R.M., A microfluidic bioreactor based on hydrogel-entrapped E. coli Cell viability, lysis, and intracellular enzyme reactions. Anal. Chem. 2003, 75, 22-26. 

Microfluidic bioreactors have a wide range of useful applications that have been demonstrated. The most common application is for immobilized microfluidic enzyme reactors (IMER). IMERs are most commonly used for protein analysis by peptide mapping. Microfluidic bioreactors have also been widely used for biosensing applications. This typically involves immobilizing an enzyme that enables the detection of the analyte of interest. Immunoassays are also a common method to enable the detection of a specific biologically active analyte in a microfluidic system. 

The most important factor in making microfluidic bioreactors is in the immobilization technique that is used to couple a biologically active functionality into the microfluidic system. In order to incorporate such a functionality into a system, the biological compound must be attached to the microfluidic system. This can be accomplished either in an open channel or on a solid support within the microfluidic system. Immobilizing a biologically active compound to an open channel is relatively simple however, limiting the active functionality to a specific portion of a channel is difficult. In addition, the relatively low surface to volume ratio results in a low overall activity of the bioactive functionality. In order to improve the biological activity of the system, it is often necessary to use a solid support to... 

The other major approach to making a microfluidic bioreactor is to use non-covalent techniques. One non-covalent approach involves nonspecific adsorption of a biomolecule to the solid support in the bioreactor [4]. This relies on the nonspecific physical adsorption of the protein to the surface of the solid support within the... 

A wide variety of applications for microfluidic bioreactors have been developed. One of the most common is immobilized enzyme reactors that are used for applications such as biosensors, medical diagnosis, and synthetic applications. Most of the... 

MicroChannel Enzyme Reactor. Enzymatic conversion is receiving attention because it is an environmentally friendly approach to synthesizing chemicals. Reactions can be carried out enzymatically in the solution phase or by immobilizing enzymes on microfluidic walls. The use of the latter type of reaction has the same mass and heat transfer advantages as the use of a microfluidic synthetic reactor. More information can be found in a published review article [6] and in the article microfluidic bioreactors in this encyclopedia. 

Microfluidic bioreactors are miniaturized systems that are designed to perform a biological transformation on a sample. For instance, a bioreactor with an enzyme will convert the substrate into product when the substrate is present in the sample. Specifically, a protylytic enzyme can be placed in a microfluidic device in order to digest analyte proteins... 

Microfluidic bioreactors are a variety of devices that can be made by immobilizing a variety of biologically active substrates within a microfluidic device [1]. The ability to create a variety of biologically important devices is critical to enabling the true total analytical system. The variety of devices that can be made in this way ranges from immobilized enzyme reactors to enzymatic biosensors, immunoassys, and affinity chromatographic stationary phases. In order to form a microfluic bioreactor it is necessary to immobilize the active molecule within the device either directly onto the channel or onto a solid support within the channel such as a bead or a monolith. 

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