Microfluidic Combinatorial Screening Platform

We propose a microfluidic droplet-based platform that accepts an unlimited number of sample plugs from a multi-well plate, performs splitting of these sample droplets into smaller daughter droplets and subsequent synchronization-free, reliable fusion of sample daughter droplets with multiple reagents simultaneously. This system consists of two components: 1) a custom autosampler which generates a linear array of sub-microliter plugs in a microcapillary from a multi-well plate and 2) A microfluidic chip with channels for sample plug introduction, reagent merging and droplet incubation. This novel system generates large arrays of heterogeneous droplets from hundreds to thousands of samples while concurrently screening these arrays against a large array of reagents. This high throughput system minimizes sample and reagent consumption and can be applied to a gamut of biological assays, ranging from SNP detection to forensic screening.