Abstract

From Droplet-based Microfluidics Developments to Droplet-based Digital PCR

Valérie Taly, CNRS Research Director, Group Leader and Professor, Université Paris Cité

Droplet-based microfluidics has led to the development of highly powerful systems that represent a new paradigm in High-Throughput Screening where individual assays are compartmentalized within microdroplet microreactors. The integration of such systems for series of complex individual operations on droplets has offered a solution to the necessary miniaturization and automation of individual biological assays. By combining a decrease of assay volume and an increase of throughput, this technology goes beyond the capacities of conventional screening systems. We will show how by combining droplet-based microfluidic systems and clinical advances in molecular diagnostic we have developed an original method to perform millions of single molecule PCR in parallel to detect and quantify a minority of mutant sequences within a high quantity of non-mutated sequences in complex mixture of DNA with a sensitivity and precision that was unreachable by conventional procedures.