Defect-Tolerant Design and Optimization of a Digital Microfluidic Biochip for Protein Crystallization

Protein crystallization is a commonly used technique for protein analysis and subsequent drug design. It predicts the 3-D arrangement of the constituent amino acids, which in turn indicates the specific biological function of a protein. Protein crystallization experiments are typically carried out in wellplates in the laboratory. As a result, these experiments are slow, expensive, and error-prone due to the need for repeated human intervention. Recently, droplet-based "digital" microfluidics have been used for executing protein assays on a chip. Protein samples in the form of nanoliter-volume droplets are manipulated using the principle of electrowetting-on-dielectric. We present the design of a multi-well-plate microfluidic biochip for protein crystallization; this biochip can transfer protein samples, prepare candidate solutions, and carry out crystallization automatically. To reduce the manufacturing cost of such devices, we present an efficient algorithm to generate a pin...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: TCAD
• Authors: Tao Xu, Krishnendu Chakrabarty, Vamsee K. Pamula
• Keywords: Protein, Protein Crystallization, Protein Samples, Software Engineering, TCAD 2010