Meniscus-Assisted Magnetic Bead Trapping on Ewod-Based Digital Microfluidics for Specific Protein Localization

Abstract

This paper presents a technique to localize specific proteins utilizing magnetic beads (MBs) in digital (droplet) microfluidics, operated by electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD). We identify the fundamental differences between digital and continuous microfluidics in utilizing magnetic beads, and demonstrate the technique on an EWOD device. We also show specific, localized concentration of a target protein over antibody- conjugated MBs ("MB-Abs") as proof of concept.