On-chip enzymatic assays

Abstract

This article reviews different possibilities for conducting enzymatic assays on microchip platforms, along with potential advantages, limitations, and selected examples of such biochips. Enzyme‐based chips combine the analytical power and reagent economy of microfluidic devices with the selectivity and amplification features of biocatalytic reactions. “Lab‐on‐chip” devices thus allow enzymatic assays to be performed more rapidly, easily, and economically. Such assays usually rely on on‐chip mixing and reactions (of the substrates and enzymes) in connection to separations (of the substrates or products). The realization of on‐chip enzymatic assays thus requires understanding of how enzymatic reactions behave on a small scale and can be interfaced with separation microchips, and how the microfluidics can be tailored to suit the requirements of particular enzymatic assays. The goal is to obtain sufficient reaction times, without compromising the quality of the analytical separation. The versatility of such on‐chip enzymatic assays offers great promise for decentralized testing of clinically or environmentally important substrates.