Vesicles - Methods

Setup of the microfluidic system

The microfluidic system consists of a flow chamber created out of a hardened polymer and a pump system that controls the rates of flow of the various liquids into the chamber. Droplets are created within a defined space in the chamber and are propagated by the liquid flow along a grid that allows temporary containment and imaging of the droplets.

Production of flow chambers:

• mix PDMS and curing agent in 10:1 ratio
• degas and pour on wafer with etched microstructures
• polymerize on heat plate at 150 ºC for 30 min
• add unpolymerized PDMS mixture to points on microstructure where microtube inlets are to be pierced
• polymerize on heat plate at 150 ºC for 30 minutes
• remove polymerized PDMS from wafer, cut to fit onto glass cover slide (24 x 60 mm), and use clean needles (0.8 mm) or laser cutter to pierce tube inlets
• ionize PDMS and glass slide in plasma chamber for 30 sec to make it reactive
• align PDMS on glass slide and seal
• seal irreversibly by heating on plate at 60ºC for 6 hours