Cell & Enzyme Screening

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Industrial Enzyme Development

Therapeutic Enzyme Development

On-chip Synthesis & Screening

RNAi Screening

Ethanol Development

Industrial Enzyme Development
PLS

RainDance Technologies (RDT) has combined droplet technology with microfluidics to enable a large number of analytical reactions (>105/min) to take place using extremely low volumes of drugs or reagents in microscopic NanoReactors™. The Professional Laboratory System™ (PLS) is an automated, compact fluid handling platform that enables powerful new protocols for the development of commercially viable enzymes for the industrial, ethanol, food, and agricultural markets. RDT works with strategic partners to accelerate development of this application based on the specific interests of its collaborators.

PLS Benefits

RDT’s NanoReactor™ technology improves the efficiency of high throughput screening for a large variety of industrial enzyme development screens and delivers abundant and reliable data whether DNA elements, bacteria, yeast, or other host organisms are used. Using RDT technology for primary screening will increase the generation of leads from library elements with non-obvious mutations that can be subjected to secondary evaluations to optimize a broad range of enzyme characteristics.

  • Test multiple conditions such as pH, conductivity, salt concentration, temperature and light
  • Droplet encapsulation of microbes allows screening for secreted target enzymes
  • Cells can be lysed within droplets to investigate full array of cellular material
  • Unique carrier oil allows for the encapsulation and growth of viable cells
  • Precise microdroplet sizing increases reagent concentrations to accelerate assay reactions
  • Picoliter size droplets significantly reduce reagent usage
PLS Features
Chips for industrial enzyme development are configured using fluid management modules that control the continuous flow of thousands of individual NanoReactors™ per second.
  • Sample Loading -- The loading module mixes engineered microbe libraries with media and buffer, or a DNA library with IVT mix and buffer to generate droplets in which there is an average of ≤ 1 microbe or gene per droplet.
  • Off-chip Incubation -- For long incubations, microdroplets are stored off-chip and easily reloaded without leakage or cross-contamination due to proprietary surfactants and neutral charged droplets.
  • On-chip Incubation -- NanoReactors™ are incubated on-chip under controlled conditions for precise intervals that can range from less than a second to hours.
  • Optical Readouts -- A variety of optical detection methods including fluorescence detection, fluorescence polarization, and light scattering can be used to screen and sort the NanoReactors™

Industrial Enzyme Development Schematic

Chip architecture for industrial enzyme development