Droplet microfluidics for the study of multiphase fluid dynamics and the development of synthetic cells

Microfluidics has seen wide use for both enabling new technologies and for fundamental studies owing to its virtues of small volumes, fluid physics and manipulation at the microscale, and integrated functionalities of actuation, sensing, and separation. Droplet microfluidics possesses these general advantages and adds on top of that multiphase flow dynamics and analyte compartmentalization, making it particularly useful for bioassays such as single-cell RNA sequencing and digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR), for example. This thesis describes work that utilizes droplet microfluidics both as a as a tool for biological applications and as a system for investigating multiphase fluid dynamics. For the former, droplet microfluidics is utilized for single-molecule detection of circular RNAs (circRNAs) by ddPCR and for templating giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) toward the bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells using both single and double emulsions. Fundamental fluid dynamics are also studied. Inertial ordering of multi-droplet trains was investigated, where hydrodynamic interactions are shown to be enable the self-assembly of droplets into well-spaced trains or lead to disorder in contrast to the established observations involving solid particles. These dynamics also have utility toward droplet manipulation for bioassays. Finally, fluid dynamics were investigated for both separating GUVs by size and for their production using the dewetting of double emulsions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biophysics & Quant Biology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Jing, Wenyang

Contributors dc:contributor

• Han, Hee-Sun
• Ewoldt, Randy H.
• Lu, Ting
• Wu, Nicholas C.H.

• Microfluidics
• Drop
• Guv
• Synthetic Cell
• Droplet

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Wenyang Jing

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122241

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F122241