Evolving enzymes on a microchip

October 2011

Dr. Yonggang Zhu’s Fellowship project aims to develop an integrated microfluidic chip that can perform in vitro enzyme synthesis and evolution. This technology could potentially revolutionise nano- and bio-technology development.

The current protein evolution protocol requires screening of ‘libraries’ of massive numbers of candidate gene/enzyme variants, at a cost between millions and billions and take several years to complete. This project proposes to use microfluidic water-in-oil droplets to compartmentalise these libraries. These discrete micro-droplets are ideal bioreactors in which enzymes can be synthesised, screened and selected. The high level of controllability and speed of droplet production in microchips (~103 drops per second) allows for unprecedentedly fast and low-cost screening of massive libraries, with a potential 106-fold reduction in time and cost in comparison with existing technologies.

MCN’s state-of-the-art lithographical tools, characterisation tools and biological labs will be fully utilised for the project.

This work could potentially lead to a new way of developing novel biomolecules. Such a development would benefit many industry sectors such as biotechnology, chemical manufacturing, in vitro cell-free protein evolution, biomaterials, sensing and drug development.