Electrospray microarray platform for bulk generation of highly monodisperse cell-like compartments

摘要

The generation of cell-like compartments by in vitro compartmentalization (IVC) date back to1998 by Tawfik and Griffiths for efficient cell-free system in synthetic biology. Over the two decades,three main approaches have been widely used for IVC as use of homogenizers and vortexing inconventional methods, microfluidics-based approaches use of single nozzle in electrospray .Each technique has its own demerits from polydisperse to low-throughput generation to timeconsuming respectively, and thus, these approaches limit the application of IVC in the chemical andbiological sciences. Electrospray incorporating single nozzle generates monodisperse and fL-sizeddroplets but it consumes hours-to-days for encapsulation of μl scale reaction with a limit of librarysize to 10~(8-9). Hence, in this work we present a novel platform by integrating micro-hole chip withimmersed electrospray for ultrahigh-throughput generation of highly monodisperse water-in-oil oragarose-in-oil compartments.