Unconventional Low-Cost Fabrication and Patterning Techniques for Point of Care Diagnostics

Abstract

The potential of rapid, quantitative, and sensitive diagnosis has led to many innovative ‘lab on chip’ technologies for point of care diagnostic applications. Because these chips must be designed within strict cost constraints to be widely deployable, recent research in this area has produced extremely novel non-conventional micro- and nano-fabrication innovations. These advances can be leveraged for other biological assays as well, including for custom assay development and academic prototyping. The technologies reviewed here leverage extremely low-cost substrates and easily adoptable ways to pattern both structural and biological materials at high resolution in unprecedented ways. These new approaches offer the promise of more rapid prototyping with less investment in capital equipment as well as greater flexibility in design. Though still in their infancy, these technologies hold potential to improve upon the resolution, sensitivity, flexibility, and cost-savings over more traditional approaches.

Rapid fabrication of pressure-driven open-channel microfluidic devices in omniphobic RF paper

“…8 Their relatively low cost and 20 simplicity have made µPADs attractive for prototyping concepts in microanalysis, and perhaps in applications in areas such as medical diagnostics for resource-limited environments, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] environmental monitoring, [16][17][18][19] food safety testing, 20 and forensic analysis. 18,19 Despite their advantages, current paper microfluidic 25 technologies share some common disadvantages: limited minimum feature sizes (channel widths are generally greater than 200 µm) and inefficient delivery of sample within the device.…”

Advanced Molecular Biologic Techniques in Toxicologic Disease

“…Novel nanotechnology approaches, in use with resulted molecular biologic data, for example include microfluidic technology and dip pen lithography. These methodologies have the potential to yield real-time, bedside results with high sensitivity and specificity [40].…”

Enhanced single-cell printing by acoustophoretic cell focusing

“…The current measured 1 s after applying the potential was recorded for each K 4 [Fe(CN) 6 ] concentration.…”

“…K 4 [Fe(CN) 6 ] solutions from 10 nM to 140 mM were prepared in 1 M KCl background electrolyte solution. A calibration curve was generated using device 2 through chronoamperometry using a CH Instruments 600E electrochemical workstation (Austin, TX) at a potential of 0.3 V…”

“…Electronic mail: mirabj@mcmaster.ca 1932-1058/2015/9(2)/026501/11 V C Author(s) 2015 9, 026501-1 BIOMICROFLUIDICS 9, 026501 (2015) To overcome these limitations, non-traditional bench-top fabrication methods have been developed to prototype and fabricate micro-and nanostructured materials. 4 These approaches include techniques such as razor-blade cutting (xurography), 6,7 adhesive film masking, 8 and structuring through shape-memory polymers (SMPs), 9,10 among many others. Using these techniques, it has been possible to prototype microfluidic channels, [11][12][13] pattern thin films and surfaces, 8,14 and produce micro and nanostructured metallic surfaces [15][16][17] that have been applied mostly to Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) applications.…”