SBIR Phase I: Microfluidic Protein Crystallization Device with Valves

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0109845HaushalterThis Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop micromachined fluid handling components as part of a new technology platform for high throughput protein crystallization and the collection of single crystal x-ray diffraction data. As increasing effort is directed toward proteomics and high throughput proteinstructure determination, the data derived from the determination of 3-D protein structureswill have enormous impact in such areas as protein engineering, recombinant DNA technology and gene therapy. This project proffers a simple design for an inexpensive device, a Microfluidic Protein Crystallization Chip (MPCC), that possesses a high-density array of vessels, each with fluid inlets and vents, and a design for simple on-chip two-way valves. Methods are proposed to rapidly prototype new designs with design modifications made on the order of a day. The MPCC will be able to dose solutions appropriate to run commercial screening matrices. Since the device will be on the order of 1 mm thick, x-ray data will be collected by simply placing the crystal-containing MPCC device directly into the x-ray beam, thereby abrogating the expensive labor and equipment intensive exercise of isolating several micron sized crystals from 20-100 nL of mother liquid.The commercial applications of this project will be in the Structural Genomics market.