Design and microfabrication of fluidic device for separation of organelles

In proteomics and signal transduction studies, the demand to identify the location and amount of proteins poses challenges to subcellular separation and sample preparations. Current technologies involve laborious and time-consuming procedures that require large sample volumes (>10/sup 6/ cells). For protein profiling, the organelle separation needs to be fast, parallel, and automated to match the great number of experiments needed. In this study, we devise a scheme for using isoelectric focusing in micro scale to achieve the isolation of organelles much faster than in conventional methods. The device was modeled and microfabricated, and mitochondria from cultured human epithelial cells were shown to be isolated.