Viscoelasticity-dependent, deformation-based sorting of microgels using sequential bifurcations.

Authors

Julia Radzio, Stephanie J Yang, Paulo E Arratia, David A Issadore

Published in

Lab on a chip. Sep 08, 2026. Epub Sep 08, 2026.

Abstract

Droplet-based microfluidics have accelerated the discovery of rare variants in large combinatorial protein libraries by enabling high-throughput screening in miniaturized reaction systems. However, throughput limitations and assay compatibility constrain the accessible sequence space and the diversity of enzyme classes amenable to droplet-based screening. Passive, deformability-based sorting systems offer scalability via microfluidic parallelization, but existing platforms lack the sensitivity and throughput required for efficiently exploring vast fitness landscapes. In this work, we present a microfluidic device for passively sorting monodisperse microgels based on their deformability using sequential bifurcations, with a throughput up to 300 Hz. Extension-dominated flow in a T-shaped junction enables rapid microgel deformation, leading to viscoelasticity-dependent trajectories under finite flow inertia. To investigate the relationship between microgel viscoelasticity and sorting performance, we characterized the transit dynamics of a model system of agarose microgels. We demonstrated the ability to rapidly isolate highly viscous agarase-degraded microgels from highly elastic 1% agarose microgels with 99.3% accuracy. Our design has promise for expanding the capabilities of droplet-based screening for enzyme-mediated polymerization or degradation assays.

PMID:
42706985
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Sep 2026.

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