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A microfluidic device has been developed that can adsorb proteins from solution, hold them with negligible denaturation, and release them on command. The active element in the device is a 4-nanometer-thick polymer film that can be thermally switched between an antifouling hydrophilic state and a protein-adsorbing state that is more hydrophobic. This active polymer has been integrated into a microfluidic hot plate that can be programmed to adsorb and desorb protein monolayers in less than 1 second. The rapid response characteristics of the device can be manipulated for proteomic functions, including preconcentration and separation of soluble proteins on an integrated fluidics chip.
Huber et al. (Thu,) studied this question.