Microfluidic components for protein characterization.

• The use of microfluidic components to create an analytical toolbox for the very rapidly growing field of proteomics is described. This toolbox provides novel generic analytical solutions that are highly adaptable for analysis of various biomolecules, ranging from high to low abundant. The components are fabricated using silicon micromachining and consist of a microchip immobilised enzyme reactor (microIMER), a piezoelectric microdispenser and high-density nanovial target plates. This microtechnology based platform interfaces matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF-MS) to a wide range of upstream sample handling and/or analytical techniques. Examples of applications such as rapid on-line digestion (12 s) and sample preparation of proteins, interfacing to capillary liquid chromatography (100 attomol sensitivity), and in-vial chemistry on femtomol amounts of sample are presented.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Miniaturization

Nanotechnology

Proteins : chemistry

Proteins : isolation & purification

Proteome

Silicon

Spectrometry

Mass

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization : instrumentation

Equipment Design

Biotechnology : instrumentation

Bioreactors

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)