Automated flow-based/digital microfluidic platform integrated with onsite electroporation process for multiplex genetic engineering applications

Abstract

We present a novel automated flow-based/digital microfluidic platform integrated with onsite electroporation function. In addition to high-throughput arraying of microdroplets and mixing of DNA parts and cells, proposed platform is capable of multiplexed electroporation process and dual optical detection of expressed fluorescence on chip. Unlike conventional microtiter plate based reactions, our platform would allow completely automated and robust genetic engineering steps using drastically smaller amounts of reagents and can be useful for gene editing processes such as CRISPR/Cas9 for synthetic biology applications.