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Advances in Biochemical... 2022Microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip systems have become increasingly important tools across many research fields in recent years. As a result of their small size and precise... (Review)
Review
Microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip systems have become increasingly important tools across many research fields in recent years. As a result of their small size and precise flow control, as well as their ability to enable in situ process visualization, microfluidic systems are increasingly finding applications in environmental science and engineering. Broadly speaking, their main present applications within these fields include use as sensors for water contaminant analysis (e.g., heavy metals and organic pollutants), as tools for microorganism detection (e.g., virus and bacteria), and as platforms for the investigation of environment-related problems (e.g., bacteria electron transfer and biofilm formation). This chapter aims to review the applications of microfluidics in environmental science and engineering - with a particular focus on the foregoing topics. The advantages and limitations of microfluidics when compared to traditional methods are also surveyed, and several perspectives on the future of research and development into microfluidics for environmental applications are offered.
Topics: Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; Microfluidics
PubMed: 32440697
DOI: 10.1007/10_2020_128 -
Journal of Nanobiotechnology Mar 2023The advancement of microfluidics has enabled numerous discoveries and technologies in life sciences. However, due to the lack of industry standards and configurability,... (Review)
Review
The advancement of microfluidics has enabled numerous discoveries and technologies in life sciences. However, due to the lack of industry standards and configurability, the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices require highly skilled technicians. The diversity of microfluidic devices discourages biologists and chemists from applying this technique in their laboratories. Modular microfluidics, which integrates the standardized microfluidic modules into a whole, complex platform, brings the capability of configurability to conventional microfluidics. The exciting features, including portability, on-site deployability, and high customization motivate us to review the state-of-the-art modular microfluidics and discuss future perspectives. In this review, we first introduce the working mechanisms of the basic microfluidic modules and evaluate their feasibility as modular microfluidic components. Next, we explain the connection approaches among these microfluidic modules, and summarize the advantages of modular microfluidics over integrated microfluidics in biological applications. Finally, we discuss the challenge and future perspectives of modular microfluidics.
Topics: Microfluidics; Biological Science Disciplines; Lab-On-A-Chip Devices
PubMed: 36906553
DOI: 10.1186/s12951-023-01846-x -
Lab on a Chip Sep 2022Originally designed for chromatography, electrophoresis, and printing technologies, microfluidics has since found applications in a variety of domains such as... (Review)
Review
Originally designed for chromatography, electrophoresis, and printing technologies, microfluidics has since found applications in a variety of domains such as engineering, chemistry, environmental, and life sciences. The fundamental reason for this expansion has been the development of miniature components, allowing the handling of liquids at the microscale. For the maturation of microfluidic technologies, the need for affordable, reliable, and quantitative techniques to measure flow rates from 1 nL min to 1 mL min appears as a strong challenge. We review herein the different technologies available and those under development, and discuss their sensing principles and industrial maturity. Given the need of traceability of these measurements, we then focus on the developments of primary standards to measure microfluidic flow rates by metrological institutes. We conclude this review with some perspectives and pending challenges for microfluidic flowmeters.
Topics: Microfluidics; Printing, Three-Dimensional
PubMed: 35770690
DOI: 10.1039/d2lc00188h -
Journal of Molecular Biology Mar 2018Microfluidics has the potential to transform experimental approaches across the life sciences. In this review, we discuss recent advances enabled by the development and... (Review)
Review
Microfluidics has the potential to transform experimental approaches across the life sciences. In this review, we discuss recent advances enabled by the development and application of microfluidic approaches to protein biophysics. We focus on areas where key fundamental features of microfluidics open up new possibilities and present advantages beyond low volumes and short time-scale analysis, conventionally provided by microfluidics. We discuss the two most commonly used forms of microfluidic technology, single-phase laminar flow and multiphase microfluidics. We explore how the understanding and control of the characteristic physical features of the microfluidic regime, the integration of microfluidics with orthogonal systems and the generation of well-defined microenvironments can be used to develop novel devices and methods in protein biophysics for sample manipulation, functional and structural studies, detection and material processing.
Topics: Biophysics; Humans; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Microfluidics; Nanotechnology; Proteins; Staining and Labeling
PubMed: 29289566
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2017.12.015 -
Nature Mar 2014Microfluidics, a technology characterized by the engineered manipulation of fluids at the submillimetre scale, has shown considerable promise for improving diagnostics... (Review)
Review
Microfluidics, a technology characterized by the engineered manipulation of fluids at the submillimetre scale, has shown considerable promise for improving diagnostics and biology research. Certain properties of microfluidic technologies, such as rapid sample processing and the precise control of fluids in an assay, have made them attractive candidates to replace traditional experimental approaches. Here we analyse the progress made by lab-on-a-chip microtechnologies in recent years, and discuss the clinical and research areas in which they have made the greatest impact. We also suggest directions that biologists, engineers and clinicians can take to help this technology live up to its potential.
Topics: Animals; Biomedical Research; Body Fluids; Cell Migration Assays; Chemotaxis; Diagnostic Tests, Routine; Drug Discovery; Humans; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Microfluidics
PubMed: 24622198
DOI: 10.1038/nature13118 -
Small (Weinheim An Der Bergstrasse,... Mar 2020Motivated by the increasing demand of wearable and soft electronics, liquid metal (LM)-based microfluidics has been subjected to tremendous development in the past... (Review)
Review
Motivated by the increasing demand of wearable and soft electronics, liquid metal (LM)-based microfluidics has been subjected to tremendous development in the past decade, especially in electronics, robotics, and related fields, due to the unique advantages of LMs that combines the conductivity and deformability all-in-one. LMs can be integrated as the core component into microfluidic systems in the form of either droplets/marbles or composites embedded by polymer materials with isotropic and anisotropic distribution. The LM microfluidic systems are found to have broad applications in deformable antennas, soft diodes, biomedical sensing chips, transient circuits, mechanically adaptive materials, etc. Herein, the recent progress in the development of LM-based microfluidics and their potential applications are summarized. The current challenges toward industrial applications and future research orientation of this field are also summarized and discussed.
Topics: Electronics; Metals; Microfluidics; Monitoring, Physiologic; Robotics; Wearable Electronic Devices
PubMed: 31573755
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201903841 -
The Analyst May 2022Single-cell manipulation and analysis is critical to the study of many fundamental biological processes and uncovering cellular heterogeneity, and presents the potential... (Review)
Review
Single-cell manipulation and analysis is critical to the study of many fundamental biological processes and uncovering cellular heterogeneity, and presents the potential for extremely valuable applications in biomedical fields, including neuroscience, regenerative therapy, early diagnosis, and drug screening. The use of microfluidic technologies in single-cell manipulation and analysis is one of the most promising approaches and enables the creation of innovative conditions that are impractical or impossible to achieve using conventional methods. Herein, an overview of the technological development of single-cell droplet microfluidics is presented. The significant advantages of microfluidic droplet technology, the dynamic parameters affecting droplet production, and the geometric structures of microfluidic devices are emphasized. Furthermore, the progress to date in passive and active droplet generation methods based on microfluidics and various microfluidic tools for the production of single-cell droplets and hydrogel microspheres are summarized. Their key features, achievements, and limitations associated with single-cell droplet and hydrogel formation are discussed. The recent popularized applications of single-cell droplet microfluidics in biomedicine involving small-molecule detection, protein analysis, and drug screening and genetic analysis of single cells are explored too. Finally, the challenges that must be overcome to enable future applications in single-cell droplet microfluidics are highlighted.
Topics: Hydrogels; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Microfluidics
PubMed: 35506869
DOI: 10.1039/d1an02321g -
Small (Weinheim An Der Bergstrasse,... Mar 2020In the past two decades, microfluidics-based particle production is widely applied for multiple biological usages. Compared to conventional bulk methods,... (Review)
Review
In the past two decades, microfluidics-based particle production is widely applied for multiple biological usages. Compared to conventional bulk methods, microfluidic-assisted particle production shows significant advantages, such as narrower particle size distribution, higher reproducibility, improved encapsulation efficiency, and enhanced scaling-up potency. Herein, an overview of the recent progress of the microfluidics technology for nano-, microparticles or droplet fabrication, and their biological applications is provided. For both nano-, microparticles/droplets, the previously established mechanisms behind particle production via microfluidics and some typical examples during the past five years are discussed. The emerging interdisciplinary technologies based on microfluidics that have produced microparticles or droplets for cellular analysis and artificial cells fabrication are summarized. The potential drawbacks and future perspectives are also briefly discussed.
Topics: Microfluidics; Nanoparticles; Reproducibility of Results
PubMed: 31702878
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201904673 -
Electrophoresis Jun 2019Microfluidics has made a very impressive progress in the past decades due to its unique and instinctive advantages. Droplet-based microfluidic systems show excellent... (Review)
Review
Microfluidics has made a very impressive progress in the past decades due to its unique and instinctive advantages. Droplet-based microfluidic systems show excellent compatibility with many chemical and biological reagents and are capable of performing variety of operations that can implement microreactor, complex multiple core-shell structure, and many applications in biomedical research such as drug encapsulation, targeted drug delivery systems, and multifunctionalization on carriers. Droplet-based systems have been directly used to synthesize particles and encapsulate many biological entities for biomedicine applications due to their powerful encapsulation capability and facile versatility. In this paper, we review its origin, deviation, and evolution to draw a clear future, especially for droplet-based biomedical applications. This paper will focus on droplet generation, variations and complication as starter, and logistically lead to the numerous typical applications in biomedical research. Finally, we will summarize both its challenge and future prospects relevant to its droplet-based biomedical applications.
Topics: Biomedical Research; Cell Encapsulation; Drug Delivery Systems; Microfluidics
PubMed: 30892714
DOI: 10.1002/elps.201900047 -
Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton,... 2017Microfluidics has become an important tool for the commercial product development in diagnostics. This article will focus on current technical demands during the... (Review)
Review
Microfluidics has become an important tool for the commercial product development in diagnostics. This article will focus on current technical demands during the development process such as material and integration challenges. Furthermore, we present data on the diagnostics market as well as examples of microfluidics-enabled systems currently under commercial development or already on the market.
Topics: Biotechnology; Humans; Marketing of Health Services; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; Microfluidics; Molecular Diagnostic Techniques; Technology Transfer
PubMed: 28044283
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6734-6_1