(R)evolution-on-a-chip

Billions of years of Darwinian evolution has led to the emergence of highly sophisticated and diverse life forms on Earth. Inspired by natural evolution, similar principles have been adopted in laboratory evolution for the fast optimization of genes and proteins for specific applications. In this review, we highlight state-of-the-art laboratory evolution strategies for protein engineering, with a special emphasis on in vitro strategies. We further describe how recent progress in microfluidic technology has allowed the generation and manipulation of artificial compartments for high-throughput laboratory evolution experiments. Expectations for the future are high: we foresee a revolution on-a-chip.