Microfluidic devices are an enabling technology for many labs, facilitating a wide range of applications spanning high-throughput encapsulation, molecular separations, and long-term cell culture. In many cases, however, their utility is limited by a 'world-to-chip' barrier that makes it difficult to serially interface samples with these devices. As a result, many researchers are forced to rely on low-throughput, manual approaches for managing device input and output (IO) of samples, reagents, and effluent. Here, we present a hardware-software platform for automated microfluidic IO (micrIO). The platform, which is uniquely compatible with positive-pressure microfluidics, comprises an 'AutoSipper' for input and a 'Fraction Collector' for output. To facilitate widespread adoption, both are open-source builds constructed from components that are readily purchased online or fabricated from included design files. The software control library, written in Python, allows the platform to be integrated with existing experimental setups and to coordinate IO with other functions such as valve actuation and assay imaging. We demonstrate these capabilities by coupling both the AutoSipper and Fraction Collector to two microfluidic devices: a simple, valved inlet manifold and a microfluidic droplet generator that produces beads with distinct spectral codes. Analysis of the collected materials in each case establishes the ability of the platform to draw from and output to specific wells of multiwell plates with negligible cross-contamination between samples.

中文翻译：

---

micrIO：用于自动微流体输入输出的开源自动进样器和馏分收集器。

微流控设备是许多实验室的一项支持技术，促进了广泛的应用，包括高通量封装、分子分离和长期细胞培养。然而，在许多情况下，它们的实用性受到“世界到芯片”障碍的限制，这使得样品与这些设备的串行连接变得困难。因此，许多研究人员被迫依赖低通量的手动方法来管理样品、试剂和流出物的设备输入和输出 (IO)。在这里，我们提出了一个用于自动化微流控 IO (micrIO) 的硬件软件平台。该平台与正压微流体独特兼容，包括用于输入的“AutoSipper”和用于输出的“馏分收集器”。为了促进广泛采用，两者都是开源构建，由可轻松在线购买或根据包含的设计文件制造的组件构建。用 Python 编写的软件控制库允许该平台与现有实验设置集成，并协调 IO 与其他功能（例如阀门驱动和分析成像）。我们通过将 AutoSipper 和 Fraction Collector 与两个微流体设备耦合来展示这些功能：一个简单的带阀入口歧管和一个微流体液滴发生器，可产生具有不同光谱代码的珠子。对每种情况下收集的材料的分析确定了平台从多孔板的特定孔中提取和输出的能力，样品之间的交叉污染可以忽略不计。