Team:BIOTEC Dresden/Results Vesicles

Lipid Vesicles

First approach: Microjetting

Our first GUVs were made by shooting aqueous material through a lipid film using a microjetting setup.

unfortunately, this method mostly produced GUVs that were unstable and had a wide 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.