Leveraging Interactions in Microfluidic Droplets for Enhanced Biotechnology Screens

TL;DR

This review highlights recent advances in microfluidic droplet interaction assays, emphasizing their versatility and potential to revolutionize high-throughput biotechnology applications across various biological and environmental domains.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of emerging interaction assay methods in microfluidic droplets and discusses their expanding applications in biotechnology and bioanalysis.

Findings

Recent methodological breakthroughs enable larger-scale bioanalysis.

Droplet-based screens are extending into new domains like cargo delivery and synthetic gene circuits.

Advancements include 3D-printing and responsive droplet structures.

Abstract

Microfluidic droplet screens serve as an innovative platform for high-throughput biotechnology, enabling significant advancements in discovery, product optimization, and analysis. This review sheds light on the emerging trend of interaction assays in microfluidic droplets, underscoring the unique suitability of droplets for these applications. Encompassing a diverse range of biological entities such as antibodies, enzymes, DNA, RNA, various microbial and mammalian cell types, drugs, and other molecules, these assays demonstrate their versatility and scope. Recent methodological breakthroughs have escalated these screens to novel scales of bioanalysis and biotechnological product design. Moreover, we highlight pioneering advancements that extend droplet-based screens into new domains: cargo delivery within human bodies, application of synthetic gene circuits in natural environments, 3D-printing, and the development of droplet structures responsive to environmental signals. The potential of this field is profound and only set to increase.