Thermoplastic microfluidic devices and their applications in protein and DNA analysis

Abstract

Microfluidics is a platform technology that has been used for genomics, proteomics, chemical synthesis, environment monitoring, cellular studies, and other applications. The fabrication materials of microfluidic devices have traditionally included silicon and glass, but plastics have gained increasing attention in the past few years. We focus this review on thermoplastic microfluidic devices and their applications in protein and DNA analysis. We outline the device design and fabrication methods, followed by discussion on the strategies of surface treatment. We then concentrate on several significant advancements in applying thermoplastic microfluidic devices to protein separation, immunoassays, and DNA analysis. Comparison among numerous efforts, as well as the discussion on the challenges and innovation associated with detection, is presented.

Universal hydrophilic coating of thermoplastic polymers currently used in microfluidics

“…The hydrophobic nature of disposable plastic and PDMS devices presents a considerable drawback to microfluidics applications (6,7). For instance, the introduction of aqueous solutions into narrow channels is complicated by the low wettability of these materials.…”

Physico-chemical ageing of ethylene–norbornene copolymers: a review

“…As a result, they have attracted considerable recent attention as substrate for biochips [24,25]. COC are also used for biosensor technology [26,27], DNA immobilization [28], microarrays, nucleic acid purification and immunoassays [17,[29][30][31][32][33]. The use of a blend of COC with polyethylene for the creation of bone replacement materials has also been reported [34].…”

Physical modelling, numerical simulation and experimental investigation of microfluidic devices with amorphous thermoplastic polymers using a hot embossing process

“…In the past few years, applications of microfluidic devices have been extensively explored at the interface of biology, chemistry and engineering (Whitesides, 2006), such as protein and DNA analysis (Liu and Fan, 2011), point-of-care diagnostics (Yelisen et al, 2013) and detection of biomolecules (Hu et al, 2013). Microfluidic devices offer unique advantages over conventional macro scale devices, such as decreased consumption of reagents, reduced analysis time and more portable instrumentation (Jena et al, 2011).…”