In Situ Chemical Monitoring and Imaging of Contents within Microfluidic Devices Having a Porous Membrane Wall Using Liquid Microjunction Surface Sampling Probe Mass Spectrometry

John F. Cahill, Muneeba Khalid, Scott T. Retterer, Courtney L. Walton, Vilmos Kertesz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ability to observe dynamic chemical processes (e.g., signaling, transport, etc.) in vivo or in situ using nondestructive chemical imaging opens a new door to understanding the complex dynamics of developing biological systems. With the advent of "biology-on-a-chip"devices has come the ability to monitor dynamic chemical processes in a controlled environment, using these engineered habitats to capture key features of natural systems while allowing visual observation of system development. Having the capability to spatially and temporally map the chemical signals within these devices may yield new insights into the forces that drive biosystem development. Here, a porous membrane sealed microfluidic device was designed to allow normal microfluidic operation while enabling continuous, location specific sampling and chemical characterization by liquid microjunction surface sampling probe mass spectrometry (LMJ-SSP MS). LMJ-SSP was used to extract fluids with nL-to-μL/min flow rates directly from selected areas of the microfluidic device without negatively impacting the device function. These extracts were subsequently characterized using MS. This technique was used to acquire MS images of the entirety of several multi-input microfluidic devices having different degrees of fluid mixing. LMJ-SSP MS imaging visualized the spatial distribution of chemical components within the microfluidic channels and could visualize chemical reactions occurring in the device. These microfluidic devices with a porous membrane wall are wholly compatible with the construction of biology-on-a-chip devices.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)832-839
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Volume31
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2020

Funding

This work and all authors were supported, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research, Bioimaging Science Program. This work was also supported in part by the Genomic Science Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research, as part of the Plant Microbe Interfaces Scientific Focus Area ( http://pmi.ornl.gov ). The fabrication of the microfluidic platforms was carried out in the Nanofabrication Research Laboratory at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Keywords

  • liquid microjunction
  • liquid vortex capture
  • mass spectrometry imaging
  • microfluidics

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