Open-channel microfluidics: Free-standing hydrogel microarrays for protein electrophoresis

Abstract

We report a new open-channel architecture that enables the utility of microfluidics without sacrificing accessibility-for high performance protein electrophoresis. We utilize photo-patterned free-standing polyacrylamide gels as both an open-microchannel and a sieving matrix for protein sizing. The open format allows for easy downstream sample access for immunoblotting after rapid microfluidic protein separations are performed. For the purposes of multiplexing, the assay footprint is minimized to a single channel through the implementation of moving boundary electrophoresis protein separations.