University of Notre Dame Du Lac

Zehao Pan

Hsueh-Chia Chang

Satyajyoti Senapati

David B Go

Zdenek Slouka

Vivek Yadav

Loan Bui

Yongfan Men

Donny Hanjaya-Putra

Described herein is a method for encapsulating single cells using alternating current electrospray technology in tip streaming mode. The encapsulation efficiency is over 80% and natural (alginate, collagen) and synthetic (NorHA) hydrogels and various cell types can be used. The encapsulated cells can be implanted and are protected from the host's immune response. In addition, the coating allows better tissue growth in laboratory cell cultures with a conformal mechanical support that allows molecular and nutrient transport.

Method of encapsulating single cells utilizing an alternating current electrospray

The invention provides an alternating current electrospray technology that can generate micron sized droplets in oil at very high throughput for emulsion or digital PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). This technology outperforms the throughput of the current gold standard in droplet generation using flow-focusing technology by at least a factor of 100. The design is simple and can generate a billion to a trillion monodispersed droplets in about one hour. This is much faster than flow-focusing which is limited to a few million droplets per hour. The droplet size and generation rate can also be easily adjusted by changing the voltage of the AC electric field. The range of produced droplet sizes is about 1-100 microns, wherein the droplets are monodispersed in size.

AC electrosprayed droplets for digital and emulsion PCR

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South Bend, IN, United States of America

Zehao Pan