Author(s): Miranda Y. Tang , Will A. Callahan

Presentation: oral

At the College of Idaho, many biology and biochemistry laboratories regularly perform absorbance assays. Unfortunately, current procedures for these assays are both expensive and inefficient, as the plates and cuvettes are costly and non-reusable. Microfluidic technology involves the creation of reaction chambers via the printing and subsequent heating of wax on small paper devices to form hydrophobic walls. Templates are designed digitally, which allows for ease of replication and adjustment, and the creation of devices en masse, tailored to specific reactions. We have developed a paper-based 96-well “plate” using a wax printer, with the intent of proving its functionality through investigation of the Bradford assay. Preliminary results indicate that these devices are viable for times upwards of an hour, based upon the volume of solvent used; require less than a tenth of the reagents necessary in conventional protocols; and may be analyzed using transmission-based microplate readers. Standard curves for methylene blue dilutions and Bradford assays have yielded observable color gradients with distinctly linear, statistically relevant data.

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