Drop Traffic in Microfluidic Ladder Networks with Fore-Aft Structural Asymmetry

We investigate the dynamics of pairs of drops in microfluidic ladder networks with slanted bypasses, which break the fore-aft structural symmetry. Our analytical results indicate that unlike symmetric ladder networks, structural asymmetry introduced by a single slanted bypass can be used to modulate the relative drop spacing, enabling them to contract, synchronize, expand, or even flip at the ladder exit. Our experiments confirm all these behaviors predicted by theory. Numerical analysis further shows that while ladder networks containing several identical bypasses are limited to nearly linear transformation of input delay between drops, mixed combination of bypasses can cause significant non-linear transformation enabling coding and decoding of input delays.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Large-Scale Assessment of the Zebrafish Embryo as a Possible Predictive Model in Toxicity Testing

Background: In the drug discovery pipeline, safety pharmacology is a major issue. The zebrafish has been proposed as a model that can bridge the gap in this field between cell assays (which are cost-effective, but low in data content) and rodent assays (which are high in data content, but less cost-efficient). However, zebrafish assays are only likely to be useful if they can be shown to have high predictive power. We examined this issue by assaying 60 water-soluble compounds representing a range of chemical classes and toxicological mechanisms. Methodology/Principal Findings: Over 20,000 wild-type zebrafish embryos (including controls) were cultured individually in defined buffer in 96-well plates. Embryos were exposed for a 96 hour period starting at 24 hours post fertilization. A logarithmic concentration series was used for range-finding, followed by a narrower geometric series for LC 50 determination. Zebrafish embryo LC50 (log mmol/L), and published data on rodent LD50 (log mmol/kg), were found to be strongly correlated (using Kendall’s rank correlation tau and Pearson’s product-moment correlation). The slope of the regression line for the full set of compounds was 0.73403. However, we found that the slope was strongly influenced by compound class. Thus, while most compounds had a similar toxicity level in both species, some compounds were markedly more toxic in zebrafish than in rodents, or vice versa. Conclusions: For the substances examined here, in aggregate, the zebrafish embryo model has good predictivity for toxicit

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Landolt Reaction in an Open Spatial Reactor with Conical Geometry

In a previous study, the iodate-sulfite proton autoactivated reaction (Landolt reaction) was shown to exhibit spatial bistability and spatiotemporal oscillations when operated in an open spatial reactor with fixed “thickness”, i.e., feed boundary to core distance. Here, we show that the spatial reactors with conical geometry enable one to rapidly probe the sensitivity of the above phenomena over a large range of the “thickness” parameter. This often-neglected parameter in chemical pattern studies plays an important role on the selection and stability of states. We reveal that the quenching capacity of slow diffusing polyacrylate ions on the spatiotemporal oscillations depends on this “thickness”. The presented results should be useful for further research on reaction diffusion patterns and chemomechanical structures

Preface to Special Topic: Papers from the 82nd American Chemical Society Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2008

This Special Topic section of Biomicrofluidics contains original contributions that were presented at the 82nd Colloid and Surface Science Symposium, which took place on 15–18 June 2008 at North Carolina State University. The Symposium covered a wide range of topics that are relevant to the fundamentals of fluidics and their application to biological systems

Sustained Large-Amplitude Chemomechanical Oscillations Induced by the Landolt Clock Reaction

International audienceSynergetic chemomechanical oscillators represent a fundamentally new class of oscillators, where a clock reaction, owning no oscillatory chemical kinetics, generates shrinking−swelling cycles in a chemoresponsive gel under appropriate fixed nonequilibrium boundary conditions. Sufficiently large size-changes are a condition for continually switching between a reacted and an unreacted chemical state in the gel through sufficiently large differences in the diffusion time between the environment and the core of the gel. Two former experimental demonstrations with acid autocatalytic reactions were frustrated either by complex behaviors (chlorite−tetrathionate system) or by side reactions with the gel matrix (bromate−sulfite system)....