A workcell 1.0 for programmable and controlled operation of multiple fluidic chips in parallel

AbstractWe developed a versatile lab-on-chip (LOC) workcell that enables the design and automatic execution of experiments on LOC devices, improving how we establish, optimize, and productionalize LOC processes. Key features include direct docking and cooling of native laboratory tubes, programmable reagent mixing and dilutions, parallel operation of multiple chips, precise flowrate and pressure control, clogging detection and response, programmable microscope control, chip temperature regulation, and scheduled cleaning. All functionality is controlled seamlessly from an easy-to-write protocol file, and based on extensible hardware and software infrastructures to promote community development. To showcase the platform’s use and versatility, we demonstrate a series of 5 different automated experiments at varying levels of complexity, executed across both Quake-valve and droplet microfluidic systems. In particular, the workcell was instructed to map the parameter regime that generates viable droplets, to allow a user to select diameters and production frequencies of interest for single bacterial cell encapsulation. Furthermore, three out of three days in a row, the platform successfully performed a complex 15.5h long experiment, integrating in a single automated protocol the full core workflow required by a typical protein-characterization lab: protein expression, purification, dilution generation, and quantitative binding characterization (generating 55296 images in the process). Experiments conducted through the workcell are easier to set up, offer increased control over experiment conditions and parameters, and can be heavily parallelized.