Team:BIOTEC Dresden/Results Vesicles

Lipid Vesicles

First approach: Microjetting

Our initial idea was to make GUVs shooting aqueous material through a lipid bilayer using a microjetting setup (principle similar to blowing soap bubbles).

Unfortunately, this method turned to be not technically reliable and the GUVs produced were not stable time wise and had broad size distribution.

Second approach: Mixing in Microfluidic Chamber

A microfluidic chamber that created an intersection between aqueous and oil phases produced vesicles that were uniform in size and stable for up to 5 hours. The vesicles are stabilized by a surfactant, Span 80.

In the figure below vesicles are led into a grid by funnel shaped structures in the flow chamber (top).

The video shows first see the part of the chamber where aqueous and oil phases meet. Oil flows from left to right in the channel that appears colorless. Two channels that carry material in the aqueous phase meet (this area is not visible in the image) and lead downwards towards the oil channel. The vesicles created are lead towards a network of channels that break the vesicles into smaller vesicles and eventually into a grid that stores them.