Protein Adsorption in a Continuous Flow Microchannel Environment

Protein adsorption is a critical issue in microfluidic devices especially for those reactions depending on proteins like the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Understanding protein absorption phenomena in different geometry microchannels and evaluating the efficiency of dynamic coating, which has been using as a method to prevent protein adsorption, are important tasks. Two different sets of microchannels were designed and fabricated on polymers. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a model protein for quantification of and monitoring the protein loss in different microchannel geometries. Up to 58% of the BSA was lost after flowing a 2030 mm long microchannel. The BSA adsorption rate changed along the microchannel. Smaller microchannels required a longer time to achieve protein saturation point. Dynamic coating was shown to be a time consuming and inefficient method to prevent protein adsorption in a continuous flow environment.