title: Industrial lab-on-a-chip: design, applications and scale-up for drug discovery and delivery.
abstract: Microfluidics is an emerging and promising interdisciplinary technology which offers powerful platforms for precise production of novel functional materials (e.g., emulsion droplets, microcapsules, and nanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles- and drug molecules) as well as high-throughput analyses (e.g., bioassays, detection, and diagnostics). In particular, multiphase microfluidics is a rapidly growing technology and has beneficial applications in various fields including biomedicals, chemicals, and foods. In this review, we first describe the fundamentals and latest developments in multiphase microfluidics for producing biocompatible materials that are precisely controlled in size, shape, internal morphology and composition. We next describe some microfluidic applications that synthesize drug molecules, handle biological substances and biological units, and imitate biological organs. We also highlight and discuss design, applications and scale up of droplet- and flow-based microfluidic devices used for drug discovery and delivery.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Department, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK.
authors.forename: Goran T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Vladisavljević
authors.forename: Nauman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Khalid
authors.forename: Marcos A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuroiwa
authors.forename: Mitsutoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Kunihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Sosaku
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: Isao
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015195:Drug Design; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D004655:Emulsions; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques; D044085:Microfluidics; D053758:Nanoparticles
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions
keywords: Biological processing; Device fabrication; Functional materials; Microfluidics; Monodisperse droplets; Parallel flow; Scale-up; Unit operation