Robust and rapid partitioning in thermoplastic

Partitioning is the core technology supporting digital assays. It divides a sample into thousands of individual reactors prior to amplification and absolute quantification of target molecules. Thermoplastics are attractive materials for large scale manufacturing, however they have been seldomly used for fabricating partitioning arrays. Patitioning in thermoplastic devices has proven difficult due to the challenge of efficiently displacing the air trapped in the nanoliter structures during priming of thousands of chambers. Here, we report the design of an array of chambers made of thermoplastics where the progression of the liquid-air interface is controlled by capillary effects. Our device performs robust partitioning over a wide range of pressures and can be actuated at low pressure by a simple micropipette. Our thermoplastic device lays the foundation to cost-effective and instrument-free partitioning platforms, which could be deployed in low-resource settings. We developed a microfluidic design that enables rapid and robust partitioning in a thermoplastic device. The device can be operated with a simple pipette. Our work lays the foundation to quantitative digital assays for limited resource settings.

Automated summary

This article reports the design of a thermoplastic partitioning device that enables efficient and reliable partitioning, operated by a simple micropipette at low pressure. The device provides a cost-effective and instrument-free partitioning platform for low-resource settings.