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An integrated digital microfluidic bioreactor for fully automatic screening of microalgal growth and stress-induced lipid accumulation
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  • Yunhua Wang,
  • Hongyu Zhao,
  • Xianming Liu,
  • Lin Wang,
  • Youwei Jiang,
  • Jianfeng Li,
  • Guoxia Zheng
Yunhua Wang
Dalian University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Hongyu Zhao
Dalian University
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Xianming Liu
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
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Lin Wang
Dalian University
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Youwei Jiang
Southern University of Science and Technology
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Jianfeng Li
Jiangsu Celyee Cell Technology Research Institute
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Guoxia Zheng
Dalian University
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Abstract

Algae are promising feedstock of biofuel. The screening of competent species and proper fertilizer supply are of the most important tasks. To accelerate this rather slow and laborious step, we developed an integrated high-throughput digital microfluidic (DMF) system that uses discrete droplet to serve as micro-bioreactor, encapsulating microalgal cells. Based on the fundamental understanding of various droplet hydrodynamics induced by the existence of different sorts of ions and biological species, an incorporation of capacitance-based position estimator, electrode-saving-based compensation and deterministic splitting approach was performed to optimize the DMF bioreactor. Thus, it enables all processes (e.g. nutrient gradient generation, algae culturing and analyzing of growth and lipid accumulation) occurring automatically on-chip especially in a high-fidelity way. The ability of the system to compare different micro algal strains on chip was investigated. Also, the Chlorella sp. were stressed by various conditions and then growth and oil accumulation were analyzed and compared, which demonstrated its potential as a powerful tool to investigate microalgal lipid accumulation at significantly lower laborites and reduced time.
27 Jul 2020Submitted to Biotechnology and Bioengineering
29 Jul 2020Submission Checks Completed
29 Jul 2020Assigned to Editor
03 Aug 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
25 Aug 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 Aug 2020Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
06 Sep 20201st Revision Received
07 Sep 2020Submission Checks Completed
07 Sep 2020Assigned to Editor
08 Sep 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
15 Sep 2020Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
15 Sep 2020Editorial Decision: Accept
18 Sep 2020Published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 10.1002/bit.27570