Lab-on-Chip Devices: Gaining Ground Losing Size

Abstract

Portable analytical devices are notably gaining relevance in the panorama of urgent testing. Such devices have the potential to play an important role as easy-to-handle tools in critical situations. Epidemic infectious disease agents (e.g., Ebola virus, Coronavirus, Zika virus) could be controlled more easily by testing travelers on-site at the country borders to prevent outbreaks from spreading. The increasing incidence of hospital-acquired infections caused by antibiotic resistant pathogens could be minimized by point-of-care microbial analysis as well as rapid screening tests of bacteria resistance. The threat of bioterrorism using novel unknown bioweapons has never been so high, thus, in-the-field early identification of the biological agent is crucial for triggering a coordinated response. Food allergies are a growing public health concern-allergic reactions can result in anaphylactic shock, which can prove fatal in minutes-thus, the ability to test foods for common allergens, rapidly and locally, before ingestion, would improve food safety for those with allergies. Lab-on-chip devices are becoming widely available for diverse applications and are becoming increasingly affordable. However, to shrink in price and size simultaneously, some trade-offs must be made. In this Perspective, we present considerations about product specifications, design concepts, and application scenarios.

Multiple Bacteria Identification in the Point-of-Care: an Old Method Serving a New Approach

“…In a POC device, detection of amplified sequences is often based on DNA hybridization with complementary immobilized probes, which can be spotted in planar surfaces in a microarray-like format. The resource to several highly specific probes, complementary to different targets, can significantly enhance the multiplex capability of diagnostic devices, enabling to rule out different infectious agents in a single assay [7]. However, multiplex amplification protocols can be particularly challenging at the microscale in microfluidic settings.…”

Foodborne Parasites in Europe: Present Status and Future Trends

“…The development of microbiological criteria has recently been addressed by EFSA [52] for guiding risk assessors regarding microbiological contamination of food, but FBPs were barely considered. Miniaturization, which is already becoming incorporated into other fields for pathogen detection [53], enabling development of cheap, portable diagnostic tools, is in its infancy for FBPs. However, based on current research, particularly on waterborne parasites (e.g., [54]) this may be achievable as a short-term objective.…”

Key Research Priorities for Factories of the Future—Part I: Missions

“…Rapid, portable and easy-to-use LoC systems will be used by anyone to provide fast qualitative or quantitative analysis by means of automatic self-testing procedures [89] that will reduce diagnosis time. Individuals will be more responsible for their own health and it will be possible to mitigate treatment delays.…”

“…Fully personalised medicine can be boosted by the availability of bioengineered microdevices if the technology of these devices is adequately improved in terms of parallelization, robustness, and throughput. There is still ongoing research on the development of LoCs, but commercial devices using microfluidics and molecular assays already exist [89]. Wider applications will be possible thanks to the identification of disease-specific critical biomarkers and the development of rapid and portable detection schemes [90].…”