A METHOD FOR PRODUCING A POLYMER-BASED MICROFLUIDICS SYSTEM FOR BIOANALYTICS USING BIOLOGICAL MEMBRANES

摘要

Simple fabrication procedures have been developed for a fully polymer-based microfluidic system containing a thin PEEK polymer sheet in which one pore or arrays of pores of 1 to 20 micrometer diameter and a low aspect ratio of about 1:1 allow spontaneous formation of lipid bilayers. Such stable lipid bilayers, separating two fluidic compartments of small volumes (0.1 to 100 microliters), are used to investigate processes across lipid bilayers such as perfusion, or peptide and protein-mediated translocation of ions or molecules. The device allows the simple preparation of bilayers and electrochemical and optical detection of signals related to membrane-associated protein activities and perfusion. Applications are seen for bioanalytical investigations, medical diagnosis, environmental analysis and toxicology. Further applications are in processes where diffusion across pores is a determining factor, such as in chemical synthesis, crystallization and nanoparticle investigations. Said method for producing a microfluidic system (10) comprises the steps of: a) providing a first high performance thermoplastic polymer foil (2) having a thickness in the range of 1 to 100 micrometer, preferably 6 to 50 micrometer; b) generating a plurality of pores (6) in said first foil (2); said pores (6) having an aspect ratio in the range of 0.25 to 15, preferably in the range of 0.5 to 5; c) providing at least one second high performance thermoplastic polymer foil (4) having an embossed channel structure (8) for guiding a liquid; d) aligning the first foil (2) and at least one second foil (4) in order to enable an access to the channel structure (8) via the pores (6); and e) bonding the first foil (2) to at least one second foil (4) by thermal pressing with a pressure power of up to 2.5 MN and a predetermined course of the temperature in the range of 20 to 160°C.