微流控超快混合器及生物大分子折叠动力学应用研究进展

Progress of Ultra-fast Micromixer and Its Applications in Folding Kinetics of Biomacromolecules

生物大分子如蛋白质或核酸的功能与其三维结构密切相关,折叠动力学研究可揭示生物大分子从自由的一级结构形成具有活性高级结构的动态过程,近年来倍受科学界重视。生物大分子的折叠过程一般发生在毫秒、微秒甚至是亚微秒时间水平,而启动折叠反应则需在更短的时间内完成。基于微流控芯片的超快混合器能使溶液在短时间内达到完全混合从而触发反应,已被广泛应用于生物大分子折叠动力学研究。该文系统评述了超快微混合器的国内外研究进展,并介绍了其在大分子折叠动力学研究中的应用。

The specific functions of biomacromolecules such as proteins or nucleic acid highly depend on their three-dimensional structures. Folding kinetics investigation could reveal the mechanism of how the biomolecules transform from the free linear structure into the functional high-level structure, thus much attention has been paid to this scientific field recently. The biomolecular folding events of- ten occur in the time scale of millisecond or even microsecond, which means that it is necessary to in- itiate the reaction before that time limit. Ultra-fast micromixer could initiate reactions in a short period of time and has been recognized as an attractive tool to analyze the kinetics of fast reactions. The research progresses of ultra-fast micromixers and their applications in the folding kinetics of biomacro- molecules are summarized in this review.