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Published May 26, 2004 | public
Journal Article

A Synthetic Reaction Network: Chemical Amplification Using Nonequilibrium Autocatalytic Reactions Coupled in Time

Abstract

This article reports a functional chemical reaction network synthesized in a microfluidic device. This chemical network performs chemical 5000-fold amplification and shows a threshold response. It operates in a feedforward manner in two stages: the output of the first stage becomes the input of the second stage. Each stage of amplification is performed by a reaction autocatalytic in Co^(2+). The microfluidic network is used to maintain the two chemical reactions away from equilibrium and control the interactions between them in time. Time control is achieved as described previously (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 768) by compartmentalizing the reaction mixture inside plugs which are aqueous droplets carried through a microchannel by an immiscible fluorinated fluid. Autocatalytic reaction displayed sensitivity to mixing; more rapid mixing corresponded to slower reaction rates. Synthetic chemical reaction networks may help understand the function of biochemical reaction networks, the goal of systems biology. They may also find practical applications. For example, the system described here may be used to detect visually, in a simple format, picoliter volumes of nanomolar concentrations of Co^(2+), an environmental pollutant.

Additional Information

Copyright © 2004 American Chemical Society. Published In Issue: May 26, 2004. Received December 12, 2003. This work was supported by Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (N00014-03-10482). At The University of Chicago, work was performed at the MRSEC microfluidic facility funded by NSF. Photolithography was performed at MAL of UIC. We thank Yelena Koldobskaya for insightful comments.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023