Microfabrication of biomedical lab-on-chip devices. A review

Abstract

Lab-on-chip systems are a class of miniaturized analytical devices that integrate fluidics, electronics and various sensorics. They are capable of analysing biochemical liquid samples, like solutions of metabolites, macromolecules, proteins, nucleic acids, or cells and viruses. Supplementary to their measuring capabilities, the lab-on-chip devices facilitate fluidic transportation, sorting, mixing, or separation of liquid samples. A type of lab-on-chip devices, named biochip, is devoted specifically to genomic, proteomic and pharmaceutical tests. The significance of such miniaturized devices lies in their potentiality of automating laboratory procedures, which highly reduces the time of biomedical tests and laboratory work. This review summarizes numerous fabrication methods and procedures for producing lab-on-chip devices and also envisages future evolution.

Microfluidics and Artificial Blood Vessels as Vascular Prostheses: One Small Step for Vascular Research, One Giant Leap for Patient-Kind

“…Some notable advantages of lab-on-devices are compactness, automated sample handling, limited power consumption and embedded computing [1]. In addition these devices need only a minimal quantity of samples or reagents, enclosed in microchannels which could reduce the contamination of samples.…”

“…For clinical medicine, lab-on-chip technology is applied to drug tests, glucose monitoring, diabetic control, diagnosis of disease, tests for observing pandemics and numerous other applications [1,7]. Also, lab-on-chip devices enhance biomedical research related to mixing, analysis and separation of cell suspensions, nucleic acids, proteins and so on.…”

“…Due to the small fluidic sample volumes, the lab-on-chip devices could reduce the time of analysis and measure samples while increasing precision. Moreover, these devices support a wide range of processes including sampling, transport, mixing and routing [1,5,6].…”

“…A typical lab-on-chip device contains microchannels, measurands, sensors, signal conditioning front-ends, analogue-to-digital converters (ADC) and a digital signal processor which analyses the signal. The analyzed data could be sent to a computer or visualized on integrated displays [1].…”

“…Many of these patients are in need of vascular prostheses that do not clog easily, prevent bloodstream infections, avoid triggering immune responses, are structurally sound, and can maintain patency for years on end. To find methods of treating or entirely eradicating vascular disorders, two devices that serve as alternatives for human blood vessels will be compared: the lab-on-a-chip device, a compact machine equipped with miniscule channels [1], and artificial blood vessels, which are versatile and can be grown or constructed using numerous methods [2]. Both lab-on-a-chip devices and artificial blood vessels can be used as vascular prostheses but they are made in different ways and from various materials with different functions.…”