Algorithms for Sample and Waste-Aware Multiple Concentration Dilution Preparation with Digital Microfluidic Biochips

ABSTRACT

A new algorithm for sample and waste-aware multiple concentration dilution (SWMD) preparation with a digital microfluidic biochip or lab-on-chip is reported in this paper. Samples and reagents used in many biochemical protocols are often found to be expensive, and hence, their usage should be reduced as much as possible. The proposed method utilizes waste recycling, which leads to minimization of sample as well as waste droplets while generating different series of multi-gradient target concentration factors (CFs). The algorithm is compared with recent dilution techniques such as MTC, REMIA, and WARA. Simulation results show that, on the average, the proposed method SWMD provides 36.58% reduction in sample droplets and 62.22% reduction in waste droplets when compared to MTC and other algorithms. However, an O(n) on-chip storage space is needed to store intermediate droplets generated during the process.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital microfluidic biochip
• Drug discovery
• Electro-wetting
• Mixing and splitting
• On-chip biochemical protocol
• Sample preparation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors are thankful to all anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and advice which helped to enhance this work and without which this work would have not been completed.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kunal Das

Kunal Das received the BTech (Information Technology) and MTech (Information Technology) degrees from Calcutta University, Kolkata, India. He was awarded the PhD degree from the University of Kalyani. He is working as an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Narula Institute of Technology, Kolkata, and former assistant professor of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Arunachal Pradesh, India. He has authored several international journal papers and several conference papers, and reviewer of many SCI journals like Elsevier Microelectronics Journal, Springer JETTA, IEEE Transactions, and many international conferences. His research interests includes nano devices like Quantum dot Cellular Automata, CNTFET, TFET, VLSI, Digital Microfludic BioChip, computer architectures, and hardware.

E-mail: [email protected]

Dipannita Podder

Dipannita Podder is pursuing her MS degree by research from IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. She has received her BTech degree from B. P. Poddar Institute of Management and Technology, West Bengal. Her research interests are digital microfludic biochip and image processing. She also published one book chapter and two conference papers.

E-mail: [email protected]

Mallika De

Mallika De received her MTech degree in computer science in the year 1985 from Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. Her PhD degree in engineering was awarded in the year 1997 from Jadavpur University. She was the head of the Department of Engineering & Technological Studies at University of Kalyani, where she served for 29 years as faculty. Currently, she is working as a professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering of Dr Sudhir Chandra Sur Degree Engineering College, Dumdum, Kolkata, India. Her research interests include parallel algorithms & architectures, fault-tolerant computing,, soft computing, and quantum dot cellular automata. Dr De has authored/co-authored nearly 40 peer-reviewed international journal articles and 40 conference proceedings.

E-mail: [email protected]