Parallel Droplet Control in MEDA Biochips using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
Parallel Droplet Control in MEDA Biochips using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
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发表时间：
2021
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通讯作者：
Tung-Che Liang;Jin Zhou;Yun-Sheng Chan;Tsung-Yi Ho;K. Chakrabarty;Cy Lee
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作者：
Tung-Che Liang;Jin Zhou;Yun-Sheng Chan;Tsung-Yi Ho;K. Chakrabarty;Cy Lee
微流体生物芯片正在用于临床诊断，包括Covid-19测试，因为它们以低成本提供样本到分辨率的周转。最近，已经提出了微电磁生物芯片以推进微流体技术。 MEDA生物芯片操纵纳米/picoliter量的液滴自动执行生化方案。在生物测定执行期间，液滴平行运输以实现高通量结果。但是，随着时间的推移，与使用MEDA生物芯片有关的主要问题是微电极降解。最近的工作表明，将液滴运输作为加强学习（RL）问题，使政策训练可以捕获微电极的潜在健康状况并确保可靠的流体操作。但是，上述基于RL的方法有两个关键局限性：1）不能用于多滴的并发运输； 2）需要使用CCD摄像机来监视液滴移动。为了克服这些问题，我们提出了一个多代理增强学习（MARL）液滴路由解决方案，该解决方案可用于具有集成传感器的各种尺寸的MEDA生物芯片，我们证明了与Marl Proplet的串行稀释生物测定的可靠执行在制造的Meda生物芯片上的路由器。为了促进进一步的研究，我们还基于MEDA Biochips上的Marl引导的液滴切换问题的Pettingzoo Gym界面提供了模拟环境。
Microfluidic biochips are being utilized for clinical diagnostics, including COVID-19 testing, because they provide sample-to-result turnaround at low cost. Recently, microelectrode-dot-array (MEDA) biochips have been proposed to advance microfluidics technology. A MEDA biochip manipulates droplets of nano/picoliter volumes to automatically execute biochemical protocols. During bioassay execution, droplets are transported in parallel to achieve high-throughput outcomes. However, a major concern associated with the use of MEDA biochips is microelectrode degradation over time. Recent work has shown that formulating droplet transportation as a reinforcement-learning (RL) problem enables the training of policies to capture the underlying health conditions of microelectrodes and ensure reliable fluidic operations. However, the above RL-based approach suffers from two key limitations: 1) it cannot be used for concurrent transportation of multiple droplets;2) it requires the availability of CCD cameras for monitoring droplet movement. To overcome these problems, we present a multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) droplet-routing solution that can be used for various sizes of MEDA biochips with integrated sensors, and we demonstrate the reliable execution of a serial-dilution bioassay with the MARL droplet router on a fabricated MEDA biochip. To facilitate further research, we also present a simulation environment based on the PettingZoo Gym Interface for MARL-guided droplet-routing problems on MEDA biochips.