Monitor your health at home:microfluidic biochip

(Total integration of microfluidic chip)

Intro and Principle

The microfluidic device can be identified as a biochip dealing with the fluidic dynamics in the microscale level. The use of microfluidic devices has a number of significant advantages. First, because the volume of fluids within these channels is very small, usually several nanoliters, the amount of reagents and analytes used is quite small. This is especially significant for expensive reagents, which will reduce the cost of the experiment. Furthermore, the fabrications techniques used to construct microfluidic devices, are relatively inexpensive and are very amenable both to highly elaborate, multiplexed devices and also to mass production. In a manner similar to that for microelectronics, microfluidic technologies enable the fabrication of highly integrated devices for performing several different functions on the same substrate chip. One of the long term goals in the field of microfluidics is to create integrated, portable clinical diagnostic devices for home and bedside use, thereby eliminating time consuming laboratory analysis procedures.

The application of total integraiotn of microfluidic chip

1. Help the doctor monitor the patient condition while the patient staying at home

The total integrated microfluidic chip can be used to monitor the metabolic parameters, such as pH value, pCO2, and blood pressure, in real time and transfer the information to the doctor in the hospital. As the technology developed, it will enable the doctor monitor the patients with diabetes, high pressure or other diseases in a real time manner. The following figure was from the bioMEM lab in University of Cincinnati.

2. Analyze the personal health condition at home

The total integrated microfluidic chip can also be designed to analyze the personal health condition without going to the hospital to see a doctor. One of the most popular assay that the microfluidic chip can perfom without the doctor is to determine the blood type at home with simply a microfluidic device.