2020, Laux, Eva-Maria, Wenger, Christian, Bier, Frank F., Hölzel, Ralph

The application of inhomogeneous AC electric fields for molecular immobilization is a very fast and simple method that does not require any adaptions to the molecule’s functional groups or charges. Here, the method is applied to a completely new category of molecules: small organic fluorescence dyes, whose dimensions amount to only 1 nm or even less. The presented setup and the electric field parameters used allow immobilization of dye molecules on the whole electrode surface as opposed to pure dielectrophoretic applications, where molecules are attracted only to regions of high electric field gradients, i.e., to the electrode tips and edges. In addition to dielectrophoresis and AC electrokinetic flow, molecular scale interactions and electrophoresis at short time scales are discussed as further mechanisms leading to migration and immobilization of the molecules. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2020, The Author(s).

2013, Otto, Saskia, Kaletta, Udo, Bier, Frank F., Wenger, Christian, Hölzel, Ralph

A silicon based chip device with a regular array of more than 100 000 cylindrical sub-microelectrodes has been developed for the dielectrophoretic (DEP) manipulation of nanoparticles and molecules in solution. It was fabricated by a standard CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) compatible process. The distribution of the electrical field gradient was calculated to predict the applicability of the setup. Heating due to field application was determined microscopically using a temperature sensitive fluorescent dye. Depending on voltage and frequency, temperature increase was found to be compatible with protein function. Successful field controlled immobilisation of biomolecules from solution was demonstrated with the autofluorescent protein R-phycoerythrin (RPE) and with fluorescently labelled IgG antibodies. Biological activity after DEP application was proven by immobilisation of an anti-RPE antibody and subsequent binding of RPE. These results demonstrate that the developed chip system allows the directed immobilisation of proteins onto microelectrodes by dielectrophoresis without the need for any chemical modification and that protein function is preserved. Being based on standard lithographical methods, further miniaturisation and on-chip integration of electronics towards a multiparameter single cell analysis system appear near at hand.