Are you currently facing long drug development cycles, difficulty in analyzing low-abundance proteins, or challenges in high-throughput screening? Creative Biolabs' Microfluidic Development Service helps you accelerate drug discovery and obtain precise, high-quality protein analysis results through advanced on-chip enzymolysis and detection techniques.
Contact our team to get an inquiry now!
Background
Microfluidic technology involves the manipulation and control of fluids at the microscale, typically within channels with dimensions ranging from tens to hundreds of micrometers. When applied to protein analysis, this technology offers a powerful alternative to conventional methods by miniaturizing and integrating complex laboratory processes onto a single chip. This miniaturization provides unique advantages, including reduced reagent consumption, accelerated reaction times, and enhanced efficiency.
A pivotal implementation involves proteolytic cleavage, the enzymatic fragmentation of proteins into smaller peptides employing proteases such as trypsin. This procedure constitutes an essential preparatory stage for mass spectrometric protein characterization and quantitation. Whereas conventionally conducted in solution vessels, microchip-based proteolysis utilizing immobilized enzyme microreactors (μ-IMERs) delivers substantial enhancements. Through covalent enzyme fixation to microconduit surfaces, proteolytic reactions occur during sample perfusion, enabling exact regulation of incubation duration and thermal conditions. This methodology demonstrates markedly superior efficiency, permitting full digestion within minutes instead of hours while facilitating reuse of expensive biocatalysts. The integrated architecture of these devices further permits direct interfacing with mass spectrometry, establishing an automated processing stream that reduces manual handling and error potential. This approach forms fundamental infrastructure for contemporary proteomics, supporting swift and precise examination of intricate biological specimens while propelling progress across domains from pharmaceutical development to precision medicine.
Applications
The applications of our microfluidic services extend across a wide range of biological and pharmaceutical fields. This technology is particularly impactful in:
Proteomics and Biomarker Discovery
Rapidly identifying and quantifying proteins and peptides in complex samples, enabling the discovery of new disease biomarkers with high sensitivity.
Drug Discovery & Development
Accelerating high-throughput screening of drug candidates, analyzing protein-drug interactions, and optimizing protein crystallization conditions for structural biology.
Diagnostics and Point-of-Care Testing (POCT)
Developing miniaturized diagnostic platforms for the rapid detection of proteins related to infectious diseases, cancer, and other conditions, providing fast and reliable results outside of a central lab.
Single-Cell Analysis
Enabling the analysis of protein content from individual cells, which is crucial for understanding cell heterogeneity and signaling pathways.
What We Can Offer
Creative Biolabs delivers an extensive portfolio of customized offerings addressing microfluidic and protein characterization requirements. We are your one-stop solution provider. Our offerings include:
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Custom Microfluidic Chip Design & Fabrication: We design and manufacture bespoke microfluidic chips from a variety of materials including glass, silicon, and polymers (e.g., PDMS) to suit your specific application.
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Microfluidic Chip Products: We offer a catalog of pre-designed, standard microfluidic chips for a variety of common applications, providing a ready-to-use solution.
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One-Stop Microfluidic Solution: From initial consultation and chip design to final data analysis, we offer a complete, integrated service to deliver actionable results.
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Prototype & Scale-Up Production: Whether you need a single prototype or a large-scale production run of microfluidic devices, we have the capabilities to meet your needs.
Leverage our specialized benefits—Request a quotation today
Workflow
Why Choose Us
Creative Biolabs' Microfluidic Development Service stands out by providing unparalleled speed, precision, and efficiency, all while maintaining the highest scientific standards.
Our Key Advantages:
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Reduced Sample and Reagent Consumption: Our platforms operate with microliter and nanoliter volumes, drastically cutting down on material costs.
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Exceptional Speed: On-chip digestion times are reduced from hours to mere minutes, significantly accelerating your workflow.
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High Throughput & Automation: The ability to run multiple samples in parallel on a single chip, combined with automated fluidic control, enables high-throughput screening and reduces manual labor.
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Enhanced Data Quality: The integrated, on-line workflow minimizes sample handling and contamination, leading to cleaner data and more accurate results.
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Seamless Integration: Our systems are designed for easy and direct coupling with standard analytical instruments like Mass Spectrometers.
Published Data
Fig.1 Microfluidic enzyme kinetics analysis.1,3
In a published study, a multiplexed droplet absorbance detector was developed to perform high-throughput, steady-state enzyme kinetics. The experimental setup used a tubing-based droplet-on-demand system that generated and analyzed concentration gradients across multiple series of droplets for multiple time points. The system was able to measure absorbance values at 12 distinct positions simultaneously, achieving a throughput of approximately 8,640 data points per hour. This represented a 10-fold improvement over previous single-point detection methods.
In a single experiment, the platform successfully determined 12 full datasets of high-resolution and high-accuracy Michaelis-Menten kinetics for a promiscuous metagenome-derived glycosidase. The experiments were performed in parallel with three different substrates, demonstrating the system's ability to characterize a wide range of enzymatic activities, covering a range of 7 orders of magnitude in kcat / KM. The results highlight the system's potential as a miniaturized spectrophotometer for the detailed analysis of enzymes and its suitability for studying diverse and low-activity substrates, which is crucial for modern enzyme discovery.
FAQs
Q: What are the typical sample volume requirements for on-chip protein analysis?
A: Microfluidic platforms are designed to operate with minimal sample volumes, typically in the nanoliter to microliter range. This is a significant advantage for conserving rare, low-abundance, or expensive protein samples, while also providing high sensitivity due to the concentration of analytes in a smaller volume.
Q: Is microfluidic enzymolysis compatible with standard downstream analytical instruments?
A: Yes. The platforms are designed for seamless integration with a variety of downstream analytical instruments. The digested peptides can be directly channeled into systems such as mass spectrometers (MS) for protein identification and quantification, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for separation, or capillary electrophoresis (CE) for analysis.
Q: How does on-chip enzymolysis compare to in-solution digestion?
A: On-chip enzymolysis using an immobilized enzyme reactor (μ-IMER) offers several key advantages. By immobilizing the enzyme, it can be reused, reducing costs. The controlled microenvironment also provides more reproducible and efficient digestion, with a lower risk of non-specific cleavage. This results in cleaner data and higher confidence in peptide identification.
Q: Can microfluidic platforms be customized for novel or challenging protein targets?
A: Absolutely. The flexibility of microfluidic chip design allows for extensive customization. We can engineer specific channel geometries, surface chemistries, and integrate various reagents or enzymes to optimize the workflow for unique or difficult-to-analyze protein targets, ensuring a perfect fit for your research needs.
Creative Biolabs is dedicated to delivering cutting-edge, transformative solutions for the life sciences sector. Our Microfluidic Development Service for Protein Rapid Enzymolysis Analysis exemplifies our dedication to helping you achieve your research goals faster and more efficiently. From custom chip design to comprehensive data analysis, we offer a complete partnership to accelerate your breakthroughs.
Featured Services
Feature Products
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CAT No
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Material
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Product Name
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Application
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MFCH-001
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Glass
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Herringbone Microfluidic Chip
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Processing samples and reagents in Nucleic acid analysis, blood Analysis, immunoassays and point-of-care diagnostics.
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MFMM-0723-JS12
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Glass
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Double Emulsion Droplet Chip
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Our double emulsion microfluidic chip, incorporating localized modifications and a classic flow-focusing structure, is specifically designed to generate stable and uniform double emulsion droplets.
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MFCH-005
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PDMS
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3D Cell Culture Chip-Neuron
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Neuron cell culture and study of axon transport, axon protein synthesis, axon damage/regeneration, signal transduction of axon to somatic signal.
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MFCH-009
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PDMS
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Synvivo-Idealized Co-Culture Network Chips (IMN2 radial)
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SynBBB 3D Blood Brain Barrier Model/SynRAM 3D Inflammation Model/SynTumor 3D Cancer Model/SynTox 3D Toxicology Model
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MFMM1-GJS4
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COC
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BE-Doubleflow Standard
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Studying circulating particles, cell interactions and simple organ on chip system construction.
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MFMM1-GJS6
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COC
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BE-Transflow Custom
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Used to construct cell interface or Air-Liquid interface (ALI) to study more complex culture systems.
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Click here to Explore our complete product catalog.
Consult our specialists for detailed insights and project-specific deliberations.
References
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Neun, Stefanie et al. "High-Throughput Steady-State Enzyme Kinetics Measured in a Parallel Droplet Generation and Absorbance Detection Platform." Analytical chemistry vol. 94,48 (2022): 16701-16710. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c03164
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Fergola, Andrea et al. "Droplet Generation and Manipulation in Microfluidics: A Comprehensive Overview of Passive and Active Strategies." Biosensors vol. 15,6 345. 29 May. 2025, https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15060345
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Distributed under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.
