Digital Microfluidics (DMF)
Enzyme screening on a single cartridge, one droplet at a time.
Digital microfluidics moves sub-microlitre droplets on an electrode array to run enzyme assays on a single cartridge. LaCAR's SEEKER platform applies it to newborn screening for lysosomal storage disorders.
Digital microfluidics manipulates discrete droplets - each a fraction of a microlitre - on a grid of electrodes. By switching the voltage on adjacent electrodes, the platform changes the surface's wettability and moves each droplet on demand, a principle known as electrowetting. Droplets can be dispensed, transported, merged and split individually, with no pumps, channels or valves.
On a SEEKER cartridge, droplets of dried-blood-spot extract and enzyme-specific reagent are combined and processed entirely on-chip: dispensing, mixing, incubation, reaction stop and endpoint fluorescence reading all take place within the disposable cartridge, immersed in a filler fluid that carries the droplets. The instrument controls the sequence automatically.
Newborn screening laboratories handle high sample volumes under strict turnaround and quality constraints. Digital microfluidics addresses several of these directly:
- One cartridge, all steps: assay setup, incubation and detection are consolidated on a single disposable, reducing manual handling.
- Multiple enzymes per specimen: several enzyme activities are measured from one dried blood spot in a single automated run.
- Small reagent volumes: droplet-scale reactions use minimal reagent per test.
- No mass spectrometry required: enzyme activity is measured fluorometrically on a bench-top analyser.
- Quantitative results: enzyme activities are reported in defined units against an on-board calibration curve.
Advanced technology
Analysis Our molecular line screens for SMA, SCID and XLA by multiplex qPCR.
Run separately or as a single SCID + SMA + XLA reaction, directly from one dried blood spot. One punch, up to three actionable results.
spectrometry Our mass spectrometry line resolves clinically significant hemoglobin variants with MS/MS sensitivity. Sample multiplexing keeps throughput high for large-scale programmes.
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