Computer design of microfluidic mixers for protein/RNA folding studies.

Autor: Inguva V; Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America., Kathuria SV; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America., Bilsel O; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States of America., Perot BJ; Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2018 Jun 20; Vol. 13 (6), pp. e0198534. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Jun 20 (Print Publication: 2018).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198534
Abstrakt: Kinetic studies of biological macromolecules increasingly use microfluidic mixers to initiate and monitor reaction progress. A motivation for using microfluidic mixers is to reduce sample consumption and decrease mixing time to microseconds. Some applications, such as small-angle x-ray scattering, also require large (>10 micron) sampling areas to ensure high signal-to-noise ratios and to minimize parasitic scattering. Chaotic to marginally turbulent mixers are well suited for these applications because this class of mixers provides a good middle ground between existing laminar and turbulent mixers. In this study, we model various chaotic to marginally turbulent mixing concepts such as flow turning, flow splitting, and vortex generation using computational fluid dynamics for optimization of mixing efficiency and observation volume. Design iterations show flow turning to be the best candidate for chaotic/marginally turbulent mixing. A qualitative experimental test is performed on the finalized design with mixing of 10 M urea and water to validate the flow turning unsteady mixing concept as a viable option for RNA and protein folding studies. A comparison of direct numerical simulations (DNS) and turbulence models suggests that the applicability of turbulence models to these flow regimes may be limited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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