Factory-on-a-chip for production of biologically derived medicines/biopharmaceuticals/biologics/biotherapeutics
AssigneeUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County
InventorsGovind Rao, Yordan Kostov, Abhay Andar, Mustafa Al-Adhami, Sevda Deldari, Douglas D. Frey
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Abstract
The present invention provides for a fully integrated microfluidic system capable of producing single-dose amounts of biotherapeutics at the point-of-care wherein protein production, purification and product harvest are all integrated as a single microfluidic device which is portable and capable of continuous-flow production of biotherapeutics at the microscale using a cell-free reaction system.
Claims18
A factory-on-a-chip microfluidic device comprising at least three separate units that can be stacked together to form a single unit, wherein the separate units comprise:
- (i) a microfluidic bioreactor unit equipped with a continuous collection channel for synthesizing a crude protein in a reaction within the microfluidic bioreactor unit;
- (ii) a microfluidic mixer/de-bubbler unit communicatively connected to the microfluidic bioreactor unit to dilute the crude protein and remove any air bubbles during mixing;
- and
- (iii) a microfluidic purification unit, communicatively connected to the microfluidic mixer/de-bubbler unit, for capturing the crude protein and providing a purified protein, wherein the microfluidic purification unit comprises:
- three polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) layers comprising (a) a top layer, (b) a middle layer comprising at least one microcolumn, wherein each microcolumn has an inlet end and an outlet end, and (c) a base plate, wherein each microcolumn comprises chromatography resin, wherein the chromatography resin is retained in the microcolumn by a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) frit positioned at the outlet end of the microcolumn, and
- wherein all fluid channels of the device are microfluidic.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.