An Integrated Digital Microfluidic Platform with Functional Micropillar Arrays and Miniature Mass Spectrometry for Exosome Isolation and Molecular Fingerprinting

This paper presents an innovative digital microfluidic (DMF) platform that integrates functionalized micropillar arrays with a miniature mass spectrometer (mini-MS), offering a powerful and efficient system for exosome enrichment and analysis. The platform facilitates rapid and automated exosome isolation from ultratrace biological samples ($1 \mu ~\mathrm{L}$), achieving a 96% recovery rate within 20 minutes, while preserving exosome activity. Furthermore, the system enables direct molecular fingerprinting without the need for complex sample preparation or extraction processes, thereby minimizing contamination risks and sample loss. Using this approach, we successfully identified potential pancreatic cancer biomarkers, including lactate, LPC(18:1), and PC(34:1), from the enriched exosomes, demonstrating the platform's significant potential for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications in cancer research.