Functional Magnetic Microdroplets for Antibody Extraction

Antibodies play an essential role in modern medicine for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Even though the production of antibodies is fastest growing pharmaceutical industry area, cost remains high, which limits access to antibody-based both developing developed countries. The bottleneck major factor purification antibody. Here, a proof-of-concept presented antibody extraction using ferrofluid microdroplets. An external magnetic field splits oil-based droplets into array daughter microdroplets, serve as magnetically tunable, hydrophobic, liquid substrate with relatively large surface area. A fusion protein (HFBI-Protein A), added solution surrounding droplets, adsorbs strongly at liquid-liquid interface by hydrophobin HFBI moiety, creating bifunctional monolayer that can catch molecules. After adsorption interface, these molecules be released decreasing pH solution. process investigated confocal microscopy gel electrophoresis. In addition, effect on field-induced droplet splitting examined. This study provides proof concept utilizing instead solid-liquid system handling.