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Microfluidic Devices for Controlled Viscous Shearing and Formation of Amphiphilic Vesicles

Technology Application

The combined features and functions of these devices enables an integrated amphiphilic vesicle production-line on a single microfluidic chip.

Detailed Technology Description

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have developed a microfluidic device (i.e. Lab-on-a-chip) that controls viscous shearing of oil-water droplets on a micro- and nano-scale and allows the subsequent formation of amphiphilic vesicles (liposomes, polymer vesicles, micelles, etc.). The technology includes various microfluidic designs for different nanomanufacturing features such as speed of droplet formation, droplet size ranges, multi-lamellar amphiphilic layers and symmetric vesicles. Also included are designs for post-assembly and post-processing (splitting, fusing, sorting) of the droplets. This first part of the invention includes various new microfluidic device designs for oil-water co-flows with tunable viscous shear forces higher than the immiscible interfacial tension forces to generate favorable conditions for droplet formation. The higher the shear force the smaller the droplet size. There are two major inventions in the droplet formation step: The design of oil-water-oil sheath flow to establish stable interfaces with controllable shear forces. This enables reproducible, and batch fabrication of the devices. The pressure gradient design to generate favorable conditions for high speed droplet formation. The second part of the invention is the method to generate bilayer membranes for artificial cells in microfluidic devices. The third part of the invention includes various microfluidic post-assembly and post-processing, that can further split droplets into even smaller droplets, fuse droplets into larger ones, or sort the droplets based on density and size.

Supplementary Information

Patent Number: US7595195B2
Application Number: US2004777470A
Inventor: Lee, Abraham Phillip | Tan, Yung-Chieh
Priority Date: 11 Feb 2003
Priority Number: US7595195B2
Application Date: 11 Feb 2004
Publication Date: 29 Sep 2009
IPC Current: B01L000302 | B01F000308 | B01F001300 | B01J001302 | B01L000300
US Class: 436052 | 422504 | 436180 | 422100 | 422101
Assignee Applicant: The Regents of the University of California
Title: Microfluidic devices for controlled viscous shearing and formation of amphiphilic vesicles
Usefulness: Microfluidic devices for controlled viscous shearing and formation of amphiphilic vesicles
Summary: Used in the formation of droplets.
Novelty: Formation of droplets comprises forming sheath flow droplets from inlet streams in which first droplet stream comprising first solution is sandwiched between second and third streams comprising second solution

Industry

Chemical/Material

Sub Category

Chemical/Material Application

Application No.

7595195

Others

Tech ID/UC Case

18870/2003-210-0

Related Cases

2003-210-0

*Abstract

Amphiphilic vesicles are artificial cells with applications in drug delivery (including biomolecular nanomedicine such as DNA, peptides, proteins), combinatorial chemistry, nanoscale chemical reaction chambers, biomolecular devices (power, optical, electrical), and various biosensors.

*IP Issue Date

Sep 29, 2009

*Principal Investigator

Name: Abraham Lee

Department:

Name: Yung-Chieh Tan

Department:

Country/Region

USA