Polyhedral Particles with Controlled Concavity by Indentation Templating.

Current methods for fabricating microparticles offer limited control over size and shape. Here, we demonstrate a droplet microfluidic method to form polyhedral microparticles with controlled concavity. By manipulating Laplace pressure, buoyancy, and particle rheology, we generate microparticles with diverse shapes and curvatures.

Dual-layered hydrogels allow complete genome recovery with nucleic acid cytometry.

Targeting specific cells for sequencing is important for applications in cancer, microbiology, and infectious disease. Nucleic acid cytometry (NAC) is a powerful approach for accomplishing this because it allows specific cells to be isolated based on sequence biomarkers that are otherwise impossible to detect. However, existing methods require specialized microfluidic devices, limiting adoption.

Particle Templated Emulsification enables Microfluidic-Free Droplet Assays.

Reactions performed in monodispersed droplets afford enhanced accuracy and sensitivity compared to equivalent ones performed in bulk. However, the requirement of microfluidics to form controlled droplets imposes a barrier to non-experts, limiting their use. Here, we describe particle templated emulsification, an approach to generate monodisperse droplets without microfluidics.

Cytoneme-mediated signaling essential for tumorigenesis.

Communication between neoplastic cells and cells of their microenvironment is critical to cancer progression. To investigate the role of cytoneme-mediated signaling as a mechanism for distributing growth factor signaling proteins between tumor and tumor-associated cells, we analyzed EGFR and RET Drosophila tumor models and tested several genetic loss-of-function conditions that impair cytoneme-mediated signaling. Neuroglian, capricious, Irk2, SCAR, and diaphanous are genes that cytonemes require during normal development.

Direct quantification of EGFR variant allele frequency in cell-free DNA using a microfluidic-free digital droplet PCR assay.

Analysis of liquid biopsy samples is a promising diagnostic intervention for noninvasive detection and monitoring of cancer genotypes. However, current methods used to assess mutation status are either costly, in the case of next-generation sequencing-based assays, or lacking in sensitivity, in the case of bulk quantitative PCR measurements. Digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) is at once a sensitive and low-cost method for detecting rare cancer mutations and measuring their variant allele frequency.

Particle-Templated Emulsification for Microfluidics-Free Digital Biology.

The compartmentalization of reactions in monodispersed droplets is valuable for applications across biology. However, the requirement of microfluidics to partition the sample into monodispersed droplets is a significant barrier that impedes implementation. Here, we introduce particle-templated emulsification, a method to encapsulate samples in monodispersed emulsions without microfluidics.

Srv2/CAP is required for polarized actin cable assembly and patch internalization during clathrin-mediated endocytosis.

The dynamic assembly and disassembly of actin filaments is essential for the formation and transport of vesicles during endocytosis. In yeast, two types of actin structures, namely cortical patches and cytoplasmic cables, play a direct role in endocytosis, but how their interaction is regulated remains unclear. Here, we show that Srv2/CAP, an evolutionarily conserved actin regulator, is required for efficient endocytosis owing to its role in the formation of the actin patches that aid initial vesicle invagination and of the actin cables that these move along.