Sensitive fluorescence-activated sorting of microdroplets containing subcelluar structures by thermoreversible gelation polymer

We have developed a microfluidic-based fluorescence-activated droplet sorting system using a thermoreversible gelation polymer (TGP) as a switching material. Compared with the conventional fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS), TGP-based fluorescence-activated droplet sorting can be performed using a relatively simple optical setup and enables a highly sensitive detection of the fluorescent target [1, 2]. Using this system, we successfully demonstrated the quick and sufficient isolation of a fluorescently labeled subcellular structure (human artificial chromosome; HAC) from the crude cell homogenate. The results presented here constitute the first demonstration of droplet sorting using TGP. This droplet-based microfluidics platform can complement the conventional techniques in proteomics.