May 2015

Digital Microfluidics Enables Analysis of Multiple Steroid Hormones for Breast Cancer

May 29, 2015

Steroid hormone testing in the clinic relies on immunoassays or liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS–MS) analysis of blood or urine samples, but there are cases where it is necessary to analyze tissue, such as in the [more...]

Can We Identify Every Kind of Cell in the Body?

May 28, 2015

A microfluidic device (at center) can carry out experiments on individual cells (Image Credit: MIT Tech Review) How many types of cells are there in the human body? Textbooks say a couple of hundred. But the true number is undoubtedly far [more...]

A Biosensing Chip Placed Under The Skin for More Precise Medicine

May 28, 2015

This biosensing chip has been created by researchers in EPFL’s Integrated Systems Laboratory. (Credit: Alain Herzog / EPFL) The future of medicine lies in ever greater precision, not only when it comes to diagnosis but also drug [more...]

Describing the Behavior of a Thermal Mass Flow Sensor

May 28, 2015

A schematic of a thermal mass flow meter (Image Credit: Wikiwand) Over the years, the development of sensor technology has enabled more accurate measurements of fluid flow. One such device is the thermal flow sensor. This instrument is [more...]

What Makes Cancer Cells Spread? New Microfluidic Device Offers Clues

May 27, 2015

Individual cancer cells were isolated with a new device. The cell on the left is less likely to metastasize. Why do some cancer cells break away from a tumor and travel to distant parts of the body? A team of oncologists and engineers from [more...]

Advice to A Young Scientist

May 27, 2015

From Science Magazine (Image Credit: Hal Mayforth) In these days of increased competition and uncertain career prospects in academia, it is easy for young scientists to forget why they do science in the first place. But too much career [more...]

New Chip for Faster, Easier Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Testing

May 27, 2015

Schematic of the antibiotic susceptibility testing device. The bacteria are cultured in miniature chambers, each of which contains a filter for bacterial capture and electrodes for readout of bacterial metabolism. (Credit: U of T [more...]

Nanoparticles: Great Promise Against Cancer

May 27, 2015

The advancement of nanotechnology in the past decade has driven the development of numerous medical applications. None of them is as promising as the use of targeted nanoparticles aimed to improve the treatment of cancer, which has serious [more...]

New Platforms Genetically Barcode Tens of Thousands of Cells At a Time

May 27, 2015

Screenshot of microfluidic devices for genetically barcoding ( from: Harvard Medical School) Imagine someone hands you a smoothie and asks you to identify everything that went into it. You might be able to discern a hint of strawberry or [more...]

Micromilling: A Top Option For Making Microfluidic Devices

May 27, 2015

A mold insert from MiniFAB being milled. With its milling and metrology capabilities, the company can control the depth, profile and texture of the microfluidic device. (Image Credit: MiniFAB) When making the tiny channels, V-grooves, [more...]

Elegant Delivery Solution for Reagents in POC Diagnostics

May 22, 2015

IVD device representation with reagent blisters The continuing growth of point-of-care (POC) in vitro diagnostic (IVD) testing is supported by technology improvements and the recognition that rapid test results offer economic and patient [more...]

Microfluidic Chip Captures Clusters of Circulating Tumor Cells-NIH Study

May 21, 2015

Magnification of circulating tumor cell cluster captured by Cluster-Chip. (Image Credit: Sarioglu et al., Nature Methods) Researchers have developed a microfluidic chip that can capture rare clusters of circulating tumor cells, which [more...]

New Sampling Device Promises To Make Blood Tests Needle-free

May 17, 2015

The HemoLink device can draw enough blood for certain routine tests without the need for needles (Photo: David Tenenbaum) Though the pain they cause is minor and fleeting, a lot of people still find something pretty unsettling about [more...]

Scientists Are Skeptical About The Secret Blood Test That Has Made Elizabeth Holmes a Billionaire

May 17, 2015

Screenshot from www.walgreens.com Faster, cheaper, better. An innovation that accomplishes those three things has the potential to disrupt an industry. But such innovations are rare. Theranos, a company founded by Stanford sophomore [more...]

Device Can Measure The Distribution of Tiny Particles

May 17, 2015

A suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) measures particles’ masses as they flow through a narrow channel. The original mass sensor consists of a fluid-filled microchannel etched in a tiny silicon cantilever that vibrates inside a vacuum [more...]

UCI Receives Up to $5 Million to Advance Bloodstream Infection Detection Technology

May 17, 2015

“Rapid, precise diagnostics is vitally important to limit the spread of infections in the healthcare environment and to provide patients the prompt and exact treatments they need,” Weian Zhao said. A UC Irvine research team will [more...]

Automated Counting of Tumor Cells in Blood

May 17, 2015

The measuring channel that forms the key component of the cytometer is visible on the right-hand side of the image. (Photo Credit: Fraunhofer ICT-IMM) Biological and medical scientists have been using flow cytometry to count cancer [more...]

Ion Pump Implant Gives the Body Its Own Pain Alleviation

May 17, 2015

The device consists of an electronically and ionically conducting polymer electrode inside a fluid reservoir, and an ionically conducting delivery channel leading out to the target region—for example, the spinal cord. The reservoir is [more...]

A New Era for Lab-on-a-Chip Technologies in Chromatography?

May 10, 2015

This article discusses the evolution and current applications of lab-on-a-chip technology in chromatography and explores the possibility of a new market for microfluidics in separation science. Miniaturization has been one of the biggest [more...]

Unibody Lab-on-a-chip Fast Prototyping

May 10, 2015

Author: Germán Comina, Anke Suska and Daniel Filippini Optical Devices Laboratory (ODL) Linkoping University, Sweden Introduction: The development of disposable devices for optical chemical detection with cell phones, entail challenging [more...]