Enzymatic reactions in microfluidic devices: Michaelis-Menten kinetics

Kinetic rate constants for enzymatic reactions are typically measured with a series of experiments at different substrate concentrations in a well-mixed container. Here we demonstrate a microfluidic technique for measuring Michaelis-Menten rate constants with only a single experiment. Enzyme and substrate are brought together in a coflow microfluidic device, and we establish analytically and numerically that the initial concentration of product scales with the distance x along the channel as x^5/2. Measurements of the initial rate of product formation, combined with the quasi-steady rate of product formation further downstream, yield the rate constants. We corroborate the x^5/2 scaling result experimentally using the bioluminescent reaction between ATP and luciferase/luciferin as a model system.