Analytical Performance Evaluation of New DESI Enhancements for Targeted Drug Quantification in Tissue Sections.

Desorption/ionization (DI)-mass spectrometric (MS) methods offer considerable advantages of rapidity and low-sample input for the analysis of solid biological matrices such as tissue sections. The concept of desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) offers the possibility to ionize compounds from solid surfaces at atmospheric pressure, without the addition of organic compounds to initiate desorption. However, severe drawbacks from former DESI hardware stability made the development of assays for drug quantification difficult.

Droplet-Microarray: Miniaturized Platform for High-Throughput Screening of Antimicrobial Compounds.

Currently, there are no time-saving and cost-effective high-throughput screening methods for the evaluation of bacterial drug-resistance. In this study, a droplet microarray (DMA) system is established as a miniaturized platform for high-throughput screening of antibacterial compounds using the emerging, opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) as a target.

Facile One Step Formation and Screening of Tumor Spheroids Using Droplet-Microarray Platform.

Tumor spheroids or microtumors are important 3D in vitro tumor models that closely resemble a tumor's in vivo "microenvironment" compared to 2D cell culture. Microtumors are widely applied in the fields of fundamental cancer research, drug discovery, and precision medicine. In precision medicine tumor spheroids derived from patient tumor cells represent a promising system for drug sensitivity and resistance testing.

Droplet microarray: miniaturized platform for rapid formation and high-throughput screening of embryoid bodies.

Stem cells are influenced by various factors present in their in vivo microenvironment, such as interactions with neighboring cells, the extracellular matrix or soluble molecules. This demonstrates the high complexity of the in vivo microenvironment. Hence, many advances have been made in developing 3D screening models mimicking this complexity and the in vivo-like state in order to ensure more biomedically relevant investigations in drug discovery.

Fabrication of Hydrogel Particles of Defined Shapes Using Superhydrophobic-Hydrophilic Micropatterns.

High-throughput fabrication of freestanding hydrogel particles with defined geometry and size for 3D cell culture, cell screenings, and modular tissue engineering is reported. The method employs discontinuous dewetting using superhydrophobic-hydrophilic micropatterns.

Droplet-Array (DA) Sandwich Chip: A Versatile Platform for High-Throughput Cell Screening Based on Superhydrophobic-Superhydrophilic Micropatterning.

A droplet-array (DA) sandwich chip is a miniaturized platform for cell-based high-throughput screening. It is based on sandwiching of a glass slide with a preprinted library and a superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic pattern, which consists of thousands of simultaneously formed microdroplets containing cells. The DA sandwich chip allows for one-step cell seeding, simultaneous initiation of screening, and 1000 times less reagent consumption than a regular 96-well plate.