Nanoparticles based method for screening enzyme or microorganism
AssigneesNovozymes A/S, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
InventorsWenbing Du, Yuxin Qiao, Dongwei Chen, Shufang Zhao, Ming Li, Ying Zhang, Wanghui Xu, Cheng Peng, Beiyu Hu, Ran Hu
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Abstract
A nanoparticle comprises water-insoluble polymer matrix and an indicator constituent(s), wherein the indicator constituent(s) is released from the nanoparticle only when the polymer matrix is degraded or broken, and then an indicative effect is triggered or enhanced. A nanoparticle-based method for screening a bioactive substance and a microfluidic-based screening system have also been disclosed.
Claims14
A method for screening a bioactive substance of a library which is capable of degrading or assisting in degrading a water-insoluble polymer matrix using a microfluidic-based system, said method comprising:
- a) generating a first droplet containing a bioactive substance;
- b) coalescing a secondary droplet containing a nanoparticle with the droplet generated in step a);
- wherein the nanoparticle comprises water-insoluble polymer matrix encapsulating an indicator constituent, and wherein the indicator constituent is released from the nanoparticle only when the polymer matrix is degraded or broken;
- and wherein the nanoparticle is formed by providing a solution comprising one or more polymers, and then contacting the solution with a polymer nonsolvent to produce the nanoparticle;
- c) sorting the droplets in step b) based on an indicative effect generated by the indicator constituent, and
- d) analyzing the sorted droplets to screen for the bioactive substance;
- wherein the bioactive substance is a water-insoluble polymer degrading enzyme or a water-insoluble polymer degrading microorganism.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.