Using microfluidics to observe the effect of mixing on nucleation of protein crystals
Abstract
This paper analyzes the effect of mixing on nucleation of protein crystals. The mixing of protein and precipitant was controlled by changing the flow rate in a plug-based microfluidic system. The nucleation rate inversely depended on the flow rate, and flow rate could be used to control nucleation. For example, at higher supersaturations, precipitation happened at low flow rates while large crystals grew at high flow rates. Mixing at low flow velocities in a winding channel induces nucleation more effectively than mixing in straight channels. A qualitative scaling argument that relies on a number of assumptions is presented to understand the experimental results. In addition to helping fundamental understanding, this result may be used to control nucleation, using rapid chaotic mixing to eliminate formation of precipitates at high supersaturation and using slow chaotic mixing to induce nucleation at lower supersaturation.
Additional Information
© 2005 American Chemical Society. Published In Issue: July 13, 2005. Received April 8, 2005. This work was supported by the NIH (R01EB001903), ONR Young Investigator Award (N00014-03-10482), the Beckman Young Investigator program, and the MRSEC microfluidic facility funded by NSF. We thank Dr. Brenda Schulman for providing the ubiquitination protein and L. Spencer Roach for preliminary experiments. Supporting Information Available Experimental details and additional data (PDF). This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.Attached Files
Accepted Version - nihms14609.pdf
Supplemental Material - Ismagilov_SI_JACS_2005_127_9672_mixing_effect_delai.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC1766325
- Eprint ID
- 40784
- DOI
- 10.1021/ja052279v
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130821-160717199
- NIH
- R01EB001903
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- N00014-03-10482
- Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
- NSF
- Created
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2013-08-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field