Phage display technique on whole cells has proven to be particularly effective to isolate peptide-based affinity reagents that specifically bind to transmembrane receptors because the receptors are kept in their native conformation during the selection. Here we report the first use of microfluidics technology to isolate phage displayed peptides with high affinities toward specific receptors expressed on a small number of live cells (2×10 4). We show that the microfluidic phage selection chip (MiPS) yields superior selection results compared to conventional panning methods.
