One-step generation of drug-releasing microarray for high-throughput screening of sequential drug combinations

Abstract

This paper reports a miniaturized platform for high-throughput, pipetting-free screening of sequential combinatorial drugs. Self-assembly of encoded drug-laden microparticles (DLPs) on the array of microwells enables the bottom-up formation of heterogeneous drug releasing microarray with a single pipetting. Face-to-face assembly of the cell chip and the drug chip allows releasing of the drug in each microwell, and simple replacement of the drug microarray achieves multi-step combinatorial drug treatment. Proposed technique does not need an automatic liquid handler for the whole procedure. For the validation, screening of sequential combination, EGFR inhibitor followed by DNA damaging agents, against TNBC was demonstrated.