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Trends in Biotechnology May 2017The traditional requirement for clean rooms and specialized skills has inhibited many biologists from pursuing new microfluidic innovations. Makerspaces provide a... (Review)
Review
The traditional requirement for clean rooms and specialized skills has inhibited many biologists from pursuing new microfluidic innovations. Makerspaces provide a growing alternative to clean rooms: they provide low-cost access to fabrication equipment such as laser cutters, plotter cutters, and 3D printers; use commercially available materials; and attract a diverse community of product designers. This Opinion discusses the materials, tools, and building methodologies particularly suited for developing novel microfluidic devices in these spaces, with insight into biological applications and leveraging the maker community. The lower barrier to access of makerspaces ameliorates the otherwise poor accessibility and scalability of microfluidic prototyping.
Topics: Biotechnology; Environment, Controlled; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Facility Design and Construction; Microfluidics
PubMed: 28162773
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.01.001 -
International Journal of Molecular... Mar 2018Single-cell analysis has become an established method to study cell heterogeneity and for rare cell characterization. Despite the high cost and technical constraints,... (Review)
Review
Single-cell analysis has become an established method to study cell heterogeneity and for rare cell characterization. Despite the high cost and technical constraints, applications are increasing every year in all fields of biology. Following the trend, there is a tremendous development of tools for single-cell analysis, especially in the RNA sequencing field. Every improvement increases sensitivity and throughput. Collecting a large amount of data also stimulates the development of new approaches for bioinformatic analysis and interpretation. However, the essential requirement for any analysis is the collection of single cells of high quality. The single-cell isolation must be fast, effective, and gentle to maintain the native expression profiles. Classical methods for single-cell isolation are micromanipulation, microdissection, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). In the last decade several new and highly efficient approaches have been developed, which not just supplement but may fully replace the traditional ones. These new techniques are based on microfluidic chips, droplets, micro-well plates, and automatic collection of cells using capillaries, magnets, an electric field, or a punching probe. In this review we summarize the current methods and developments in this field. We discuss the advantages of the different commercially available platforms and their applicability, and also provide remarks on future developments.
Topics: Animals; Flow Cytometry; Humans; Microfluidics; Single-Cell Analysis
PubMed: 29534489
DOI: 10.3390/ijms19030807 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jan 2023Microfluidics provides a precise synthesis of micro-/nanostructures for various applications, including bioengineering and medicine. In this review article, traditional... (Review)
Review
Microfluidics provides a precise synthesis of micro-/nanostructures for various applications, including bioengineering and medicine. In this review article, traditional and microfluidic synthesis methods of zinc oxide (ZnO) are compared concerning particle size distribution, morphology, applications, reaction parameters, used reagents, and microfluidic device materials. Challenges of traditional synthesis methods are reviewed in a manner where microfluidic approaches may overcome difficulties related to synthesis precision, bulk materials, and reproducibility.
Topics: Microfluidics; Zinc Oxide; Reproducibility of Results; Nanoparticles; Nanostructures
PubMed: 36768199
DOI: 10.3390/ijms24031875 -
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Apr 2022Microfluidic devices are gaining extensive interest due to their potential applications in wide-ranging areas, including lab-on-a-chip devices, fluid delivery, and...
Microfluidic devices are gaining extensive interest due to their potential applications in wide-ranging areas, including lab-on-a-chip devices, fluid delivery, and artificial vascular networks. Most current microfluidic devices are in a planar design with fixed configurations once formed, which limits their applications such as in engineered vascular networks in biology and programmable drug delivery systems. Here, shape-programmable three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic structures, which are assembled from a bilayer of channel-embedded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and shape-memory polymers (SMPs) via compressive buckling, are reported. 3D microfluidics in diverse geometries including those in open-mesh configurations are presented. In addition, they can be programmed into temporary shapes and recover their original shape under thermal stimuli due to the shape memory effect of the SMP component, with fluid flow in the microfluidic channels well maintained in both deformed and recovered shapes. Furthermore, the shape-fixing effect of SMPs enables freestanding open-mesh 3D microfluidic structures without the need for a substrate to maintain the 3D shape as used in previous studies. By adding magnetic particles into the PDMS layer, magnetically responsive 3D microfluidic structures are enabled to achieve fast, remote programming of the structures via a portable magnet. A 3D design phase diagram is constructed to show the effects of the magnetic PDMS/SMP thickness ratio and the volume fraction of magnetic particles on the shape programmability of the 3D microfluidic structures. The developed shape-programmable, open-mesh 3D microfluidic structures offer many opportunities for applications including tissue engineering, drug delivery, and many others.
Topics: Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; Microfluidics
PubMed: 35319180
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c24799 -
Cancer Letters Feb 2016Ionizing radiations interact with molecules at the cellular and molecular levels leading to several biochemical modifications that may be responsible for biological... (Review)
Review
Ionizing radiations interact with molecules at the cellular and molecular levels leading to several biochemical modifications that may be responsible for biological effects on tissue or whole organisms. The study of these changes is difficult because of the complexity of the biological response(s) to radiations and the lack of reliable models able to mimic the whole molecular phenomenon and different communications between the various cell networks, from the cell activation to the macroscopic effect at the tissue or organismal level. Microfluidics, the science and technology of systems that can handle small amounts of fluids in confined and controlled environment, has been an emerging field for several years. Some microfluidic devices, even at early stages of development, may already help radiobiological research by proposing new approaches to study cellular, tissue and total-body behavior upon irradiation. These devices may also be used in clinical biodosimetry since microfluidic technology is frequently developed for integrating complex bioassay chemistries into automated user-friendly, reproducible and sensitive analyses. In this review, we discuss the use, numerous advantages, and possible future of microfluidic technology in the field of radiobiology. We will also examine the disadvantages and required improvements for microfluidics to be fully practical in radiation research and to become an enabling tool for radiobiologists and radiation oncologists.
Topics: Animals; Automation, Laboratory; Biomarkers, Tumor; Equipment Design; Humans; Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; Microfluidics; Neoplasms; Radiation Dosage; Radiation Oncology; Radiobiology
PubMed: 26704304
DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2015.11.033 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2023Microfluidic technology is a powerful tool to enable the rapid, accurate, and on-site analysis of forensically relevant evidence on a crime scene. This review paper... (Review)
Review
Microfluidic technology is a powerful tool to enable the rapid, accurate, and on-site analysis of forensically relevant evidence on a crime scene. This review paper provides a summary on the application of this technology in various forensic investigation fields spanning from forensic serology and human identification to discriminating and analyzing diverse classes of drugs and explosives. Each aspect is further explained by providing a short summary on general forensic workflow and investigations for body fluid identification as well as through the analysis of drugs and explosives. Microfluidic technology, including fabrication methodologies, materials, and working modules, are touched upon. Finally, the current shortcomings on the implementation of the microfluidic technology in the forensic field are discussed along with the future perspectives.
Topics: Humans; Explosive Agents; Forensic Sciences; Microfluidics; Chemistry Techniques, Analytical; DNA; Illicit Drugs; Animals
PubMed: 37447704
DOI: 10.3390/s23135856 -
Molecular Aspects of Medicine Feb 2018Single-cell technology has a major impact on the field of immunology. It enables the kinetics and logic of immune signaling and immune cell migration to be elucidated,... (Review)
Review
Single-cell technology has a major impact on the field of immunology. It enables the kinetics and logic of immune signaling and immune cell migration to be elucidated, facilitates antibody screening and allows massively parallelized analysis of B- and T-cell repertoires. Impressive progress has been made over the last decade, strongly boosted by microfluidic approaches. In this review, we summarize the most powerful microfluidic systems based on continuous flow, nanowells, valves and droplets and we analyze their benefits for phenotypic characterization, drug discovery and next generation sequencing experiments. We describe current limitations and provide an outlook on important future applications.
Topics: Animals; Drug Discovery; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Microfluidics; Single-Cell Analysis
PubMed: 28927942
DOI: 10.1016/j.mam.2017.09.004 -
Scientific Reports May 2016This paper provides an analysis of microfluidic techniques for the production of nanoscale lipid-based vesicular systems. In particular we focus on the key issues... (Review)
Review
This paper provides an analysis of microfluidic techniques for the production of nanoscale lipid-based vesicular systems. In particular we focus on the key issues associated with the microfluidic production of liposomes. These include, but are not limited to, the role of lipid formulation, lipid concentration, residual amount of solvent, production method (including microchannel architecture), and drug loading in determining liposome characteristics. Furthermore, we propose microfluidic architectures for the mass production of liposomes with a view to potential industrial translation of this technology.
Topics: Drug Delivery Systems; Liposomes; Microfluidics; Particle Size; Solvents
PubMed: 27194474
DOI: 10.1038/srep25876 -
Nature Reviews. Chemistry Jun 2023Open droplet microfluidic systems manipulate droplets on the picolitre-to-microlitre scale in an open environment. They combine the compartmentalization and control... (Review)
Review
Open droplet microfluidic systems manipulate droplets on the picolitre-to-microlitre scale in an open environment. They combine the compartmentalization and control offered by traditional droplet-based microfluidics with the accessibility and ease-of-use of open microfluidics, bringing unique advantages to applications such as combinatorial reactions, droplet analysis and cell culture. Open systems provide direct access to droplets and allow on-demand droplet manipulation within the system without needing pumps or tubes, which makes the systems accessible to biologists without sophisticated setups. Furthermore, these systems can be produced with simple manufacturing and assembly steps that allow for manufacturing at scale and the translation of the method into clinical research. This Review introduces the different types of open droplet microfluidic system, presents the physical concepts leveraged by these systems and highlights key applications.
Topics: Microfluidics; Biology
PubMed: 37117816
DOI: 10.1038/s41570-023-00483-0 -
Biosensors Jan 2023The utilizations of microfluidic chips for single RBC (red blood cell) studies have attracted great interests in recent years to filter, trap, analyze, and release... (Review)
Review
The utilizations of microfluidic chips for single RBC (red blood cell) studies have attracted great interests in recent years to filter, trap, analyze, and release single erythrocytes for various applications. Researchers in this field have highlighted the vast potential in developing micro devices for industrial and academia usages, including lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip systems. This article critically reviews the current state-of-the-art and recent advances of microfluidics for single RBC analyses, including integrated sensors and microfluidic platforms for microscopic/tomographic/spectroscopic single RBC analyses, trapping arrays (including bifurcating channels), dielectrophoretic and agglutination/aggregation studies, as well as clinical implications covering cancer, sepsis, prenatal, and Sickle Cell diseases. Microfluidics based RBC microarrays, sorting/counting and trapping techniques (including acoustic, dielectrophoretic, hydrodynamic, magnetic, and optical techniques) are also reviewed. Lastly, organs on chips, multi-organ chips, and drug discovery involving single RBC are described. The limitations and drawbacks of each technology are addressed and future prospects are discussed.
Topics: Humans; Microfluidics; Erythrocytes; Hematologic Tests; Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; Anemia, Sickle Cell; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques
PubMed: 36671952
DOI: 10.3390/bios13010117