Why are microfluidic devices important?
Microfluidic devices exploit the physical and chemical properties of liquids and gases at a microscale. Microfluidic devices offer several benefits over conventionally sized systems. Microfluidics allow the analysis and use of less volume of samples, chemicals and reagents reducing the global fees of applications.
What are microfluidic chips?
A microfluidic chip is a set of micro-channels etched or molded into a material (glass, silicon or polymer such as PDMS, for PolyDimethylSiloxane). The micro-channels forming the microfluidic chip are connected together in order to achieve the desired features (mix, pump, sort, or control the biochemical environment).
What is microfluidic used for?
Applications of microfluidics Microfluidic systems are widely used in procedures such as capillary electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, immunoassays, flow cytometry, sample injection in mass spectrometry, PCR amplification, DNA analysis, separation and manipulation of cells, and cell patterning.
What are the advantages of lab-on-a-chip?
The advantages of these labs on a chip include dramatically reduced sample size, much shorter reaction and analysis time, high throughput, automation, and portability.
How do microfluidic chips work?
Microfluidics systems work by using a pump and a chip. Different types of pumps precisely move liquid inside the chip with a rate of 1 μL/minute to 10,000 μL/minute. For comparison, a small water drop is ~10 microliter (μL).
What is PCR chip?
Overview. PCR Lab-on-Chip devices are miniaturized fluidic systems for fast DNA amplification. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biological technique for addressing and exponentially amplifying a DNA fragment. The PCR process is based on temperature cycles with an enzymatic amplification step.
Are microfluidic devices the next generation of point-of-care diagnostics?
In this Progress Report, an overview on microfluidic devices that may become the next generation of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics is provided. First, we describe gaps and opportunities in medical diagnostics and how microfluidics can address these gaps using the example of immunodiagnostics.
What are microfluidic cassettes used for?
Microfluidic cassettes (“chips”) for processing and analysis of clinical specimens and other sample types facilitate point-of-care (POC) immunoassays and nucleic acid based amplification tests.
Are We at the turning point in microfluidics?
We might be at the turning point where research in microfluidics undertaken in academia and industrial research laboratories, and substantially sponsored by public grants, may provide a range of portable and networked diagnostic devices.
What is a single-use test chip?
These single-use test chips can be self-contained and made amenable to autonomous operation-reducing or eliminating supporting instrumentation-by incorporating laminated, pliable “pouch” and membrane structures for fluid storage, pumping, mixing, and flow control.