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Posts

March 05, 2013

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2:00 AM | Continuously Sorting Particles According to Shape
There are numerous filters to separate particles in liquid based on their size, which can be enough to isolate them; however, particle shape can be more important, as it distinguishes healthy red blood cells from those affected by sickle-cell disease or malaria. Shape can also be used to determine what stage a cell is in of the cell cycle, which would benefit researchers looking for dividing cells. Recent research by Dino Di Carlo of UCLA looks to separate particles of differing aspect ratios […]

Masaeli, M., Sollier, E., Amini, H., Mao, W., Camacho, K., Doshi, N., Mitragotri, S., Alexeev, A. & Di Carlo, D. (2012). Continuous Inertial Focusing and Separation of Particles by Shape, Physical Review X, 2 (3) DOI:

Di Carlo, D., Irimia, D., Tompkins, R. & Toner, M. (2007). Continuous inertial focusing, ordering, and separation of particles in microchannels, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (48) 18892-18897. DOI:

Sugaya, S., Yamada, M. & Seki, M. (2011). Observation of nonspherical particle behaviors for continuous shape-based separation using hydrodynamic filtration, Biomicrofluidics, 5 (2) 24103. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation
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2:00 AM | Continuously Sorting Particles According to Shape
There are numerous filters to separate particles in liquid based on their size, which can be enough to isolate them; however, particle shape can be more important, as it distinguishes healthy red blood cells from those affected by sickle-cell disease or malaria. Shape can also be used to determine what stage a cell is in of the cell cycle, which would benefit researchers looking for dividing cells. Recent research by Dino Di Carlo of UCLA looks to separate particles of differing aspect ratios […]

Masaeli, M., Sollier, E., Amini, H., Mao, W., Camacho, K., Doshi, N., Mitragotri, S., Alexeev, A. & Di Carlo, D. (2012). Continuous Inertial Focusing and Separation of Particles by Shape, Physical Review X, 2 (3) DOI:

Di Carlo, D., Irimia, D., Tompkins, R. & Toner, M. (2007). Continuous inertial focusing, ordering, and separation of particles in microchannels, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (48) 18892-18897. DOI:

Sugaya, S., Yamada, M. & Seki, M. (2011). Observation of nonspherical particle behaviors for continuous shape-based separation using hydrodynamic filtration, Biomicrofluidics, 5 (2) 24103. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation
+
2:00 AM | Continuously Sorting Particles According to Shape
There are numerous filters to separate particles in liquid based on their size, which can be enough to isolate them; however, particle shape can be more important, as it distinguishes healthy red blood cells from those affected by sickle-cell disease or malaria. Shape can also be used to determine what stage a cell is in of the cell cycle, which would benefit researchers looking for dividing cells. Recent research by Dino Di Carlo of UCLA looks to separate particles of differing aspect ratios […]

Masaeli, M., Sollier, E., Amini, H., Mao, W., Camacho, K., Doshi, N., Mitragotri, S., Alexeev, A. & Di Carlo, D. (2012). Continuous Inertial Focusing and Separation of Particles by Shape, Physical Review X, 2 (3) DOI:

Di Carlo, D., Irimia, D., Tompkins, R. & Toner, M. (2007). Continuous inertial focusing, ordering, and separation of particles in microchannels, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (48) 18892-18897. DOI:

Sugaya, S., Yamada, M. & Seki, M. (2011). Observation of nonspherical particle behaviors for continuous shape-based separation using hydrodynamic filtration, Biomicrofluidics, 5 (2) 24103. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

February 27, 2013

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7:09 PM | Organ Simulator Could Cage Animal Testing
Scientists are developing a desk-top machine that "plays" plug-in cartridges of channels and membranes lined with human cells. ->
Tech
Engineering

February 21, 2013

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1:00 AM | Tracking Immune Responses to Food with a Gut on a Chip
Organs on Chips In an effort to model the complex processes occurring in human bodies, Donald Ingber has pioneered the development of ‘organs-on-chips,’ reproducing the lung and the gut on microfluidic devices. These systems allow researchers to replicate and study organs without the use of human test subjects. While this is one of the best options, there are too many variables to control, understand, and more importantly, manipulate. At the other end of the spectrum is an in vitro study […]

Ramadan, Q., Jafarpoorchekab, H., Huang, C., Silacci, P., Carrara, S., Koklü, G., Ghaye, J., Ramsden, J., Ruffert, C., Vergeres, G. & Gijs, M. (2013). NutriChip: nutrition analysis meets microfluidics, Lab on a Chip, 13 (2) 196. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

October 04, 2012

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12:00 AM | A Microsyringe to Take the Pain out of Shots
Back when I was in sixth grade, I remember reading a little blurb in some science magazine at school that in the future we could receive shots via a method that would feel as soft as a banana peel. Although I’m now a champ at taking shots, it’s still not a bad idea. We’ve had transdermal patches (think nicotine and birth control) for some time now, but those release their medicine over a period of time. A syringe is capable of delivering a dose at once, and can take a biological sample […]

Strambini LM, Longo A, Diligenti A & Barillaro G (2012). A minimally invasive microchip for transdermal injection/sampling applications., Lab on a chip, 12 (18) 3370-9. PMID:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

August 15, 2012

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12:00 AM | Forcing Multi-Daughter Cell Division with Confinement
On Microfluidic Future I like reviewing advancements in therapeutic or diagnostic devices because I’m really drawn to those areas of research. Every once in a while, however, I take interest in research for the sake for knowledge, like the Root Chip. I recently came across an article from Dino Di Carlo of UCLA that describes a microfluidic device used to study cancer cells. The article, “Increased Asymmetric and Multi-Daughter Cell Division in Mechanically Confined Microenvironments” […]

Henry Tat Kwong Tse, Westbrook McConnell Weaver & Dino Di Carlo (2012). Increased Asymmetric and Multi-Daughter Cell Division in Mechanically Confined Microenvironments, PLoS ONE, 7 (6) Other:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

May 31, 2012

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12:00 AM | Rolling Out Cell Sorting with Microfluidics
Cell Sorting Cells are quite valuable, especially when used for regenerative research, diagnostics or research. But harvested cells do not come presorted and need to be separated from a heterogeneous mixture of cells. There are already numerous methods to sort cells according to biophysical properties such as size, density, morphology, and dielectric or magnetic susceptibility. Cell sorting based on labels can have a higher specificity, but introduces extra steps to add and remove labels, which […]

Choi, S., Karp, J. & Karnik, R. (2012). Cell sorting by deterministic cell rolling, Lab on a Chip, 12 (8) 1427. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

May 03, 2012

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12:00 AM | Putting the Squeeze on Microfluidics
Microfluidic devices are able to process small volumes of liquid and are comprised of microscale components, but the devices themselves are not often small themselves. These labs-on-chips are often limited to lives in labs instead of the remote areas that could really benefit from their use. The limitation comes in the form of support equipment used to process or analyze assays that are expensive, bulky, energy consuming and/or require trained professional operators. Syringe pumps are often [...]

Li, W., Chen, T., Chen, Z., Fei, P., Yu, Z., Pang, Y. & Huang, Y. (2012). Squeeze-chip: a finger-controlled microfluidic flow network device and its application to biochemical assays, Lab on a Chip, 12 (9) 1587. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

April 19, 2012

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12:00 AM | Diagnosing Similar Diseases in Low Resource Settings
Diagnostics in Low-Resource Settings A lot of excitement surrounding microfluidics has been about its promising use in diagnosis in low-resource settings. Many infectious diseases present in developing countries are manageable or treatable with available medications, but still account for 1/3 of deaths. In these areas, multiple diseases present similar symptoms, leading to misdiagnosis and thus incorrect treatment. Hundreds of blood-based microfluidic immunoassays are available for diagnostic [...]

Lafleur, L., Stevens, D., McKenzie, K., Ramachandran, S., Spicar-Mihalic, P., Singhal, M., Arjyal, A., Osborn, J., Kauffman, P., Yager, P. & Lutz, B. (2012). Progress toward multiplexed sample-to-result detection in low resource settings using microfluidic immunoassay cards, Lab on a Chip, 12 (6) 1119. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

April 10, 2012

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12:00 AM | Narrowing the Gap to Characterize Sickle Cell Disease
Microfluidic Future is by no means an accurate representation of all the current, ongoing research in microfluidics. Nevertheless, the fact that you won’t be able to find any articles about assays relying on a biophysical marker isn’t too far off the reality in microfluidics. I suppose this is partly due to the incredible amount of previous work on molecular markers when high resolution control hadn’t been realized yet. Regardless, I was happy to come across an article about a [...]

Wood DK, Soriano A, Mahadevan L, Higgins JM & Bhatia SN (2012). A Biophysical Indicator of Vaso-occlusive Risk in Sickle Cell Disease, Science Translational Medicine, 4 (123) 1-8. PMID:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

March 08, 2012

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12:00 AM | Getting to the Root of Microfluidics
It’s not hard to see that a lot here at Microfluidic Future focuses on the medical applications of microfluidics, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in other ways the technology can be used. I love to see novel applications of microfluidics because progress for anyone is progress for everyone. That brings me to today’s post on the RootChip. If the name isn’t a total give away, I recently came across an article that uses a microfluidic chip to study the roots of plants. In [...]

Grossmann, G., Guo, W., Ehrhardt, D., Frommer, W., Sit, R., Quake, S. & Meier, M. (2011). The RootChip: An Integrated Microfluidic Chip for Plant Science, THE PLANT CELL ONLINE, 23 (12) 4234-4240. DOI:

Microfluidic Future
Engineering | Physics
Citation

January 21, 2012

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8:01 AM | The Microfluidics Orchestra
A friend of mine honestly believes that when scientific knowledge has been used to deconstruct something she thought was pretty, …Continue reading »
is nerd
Physics | Policy

August 03, 2011

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8:50 AM | Miniature lab can diagnose disease in the field
SUMMARY: In a brilliant cross-pollination of engineering, physics and biology, scientists have developed a credit-card sized device that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in the remotest parts of the world in just minutes People who live in the poorest and...
Maniraptora
Ecology | Evolution
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