Overview
Microfluidic lab-on-chip platforms bring together precise fluid control and miniaturized reaction environments. Peptides integrate naturally into these systems as functional surfaces, capture agents, substrates, and signaling elements. Because they can be immobilized on channel walls, patterned onto specific regions, or flowed through microchannels, peptides support highly controlled biochemical experiments that use small sample volumes and allow fine temporal resolution.
Researchers exploit the versatility of peptides to construct microenvironments that simulate aspects of binding, catalysis, and transport. This helps in studying reaction kinetics, interaction specificity, and diffusion behavior under well-defined flow conditions.
Research Applications
- Peptide-coated reaction channels – Microchannel walls are functionalized with peptides to create capture zones or catalytic regions.
- Flow-based enzymatic experiments – Peptide substrates are introduced into microfluidic devices to monitor how reactions proceed under continuous-flow or segmented-flow conditions.
- Miniaturized detection systems – Peptide-based recognition elements are coupled with optical or electrochemical readouts to detect analytes in micro-scale assays.
- Microfluidic affinity studies – Controlled gradients and flow rates provide insight into association and dissociation patterns in peptide-mediated binding experiments.
These technologies support highly controlled experimental conditions and enable detailed examination of peptide-related phenomena in compact, efficient lab-on-chip formats, strictly for research purposes.