Droplet-based microfluidics and enzyme evolution

Abstract

Enzymes are widely used as catalysts in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. While successful in many situations, they must usually be adapted to operate efficiently under nonnatural conditions. Enzyme engineering allows the creation of novel enzymes that are stable at elevated temperatures or have higher activities and selectivities. Current enzyme engineering techniques require the production and testing of enzyme variant libraries to identify members with desired attributes. Unfortunately, traditional screening methods cannot screen such large mutagenesis libraries in a robust and timely manner. Droplet-based microfluidic systems can produce, process, and sort picoliter droplets at kilohertz rates and have emerged as powerful tools for library screening and thus enzyme engineering. We describe how droplet-based microfluidics has been used to advance directed evolution.