Microfluidic Sample Preparation for Medical Diagnostics.
Fast and reliable diagnoses are invaluable in clinical care. Samples (e.g., blood, urine, and saliva) are collected and analyzed for various biomarkers to quickly and sensitively assess disease progression, monitor response to treatment, and determine a patient's prognosis. Processing conventional samples entails many manual time-consuming steps. Consequently, clinical specimens must be processed by skilled technicians before antigens or nucleic acids are detected, and these are often present at dilute concentrations. Recently, several automated microchip technologies have been developed that potentially offer many advantages over traditional bench-top extraction methods. The smaller length scales and more refined transport mechanisms that characterize these microfluidic devices enable faster and more efficient biomarker enrichment and extraction. Additionally, they can be designed to perform multiple tests or experimental steps on one integrated, automated platform. This review explores the current research on microfluidic methods of sample preparation that are designed to aid diagnosis, and covers a broad spectrum of extraction techniques and designs for various types of samples and analytes.
Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912; email: Anubhav_Tripathi@brown.edu.
Francis
F
Cui
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94551-0969.
Minsoung
M
Rhee
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94551-0969.
Anup
A
Singh
Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912; email: Anubhav_Tripathi@brown.edu.
Anubhav
A
Tripathi
D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D057089:Pathology, Molecular / Q000379:methods*; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D052617:Solid Phase Microextraction; D013048:Specimen Handling; D014556:Urine / Q000737:chemistry; D059349:Urine Specimen Collection
microfluidics; molecular diagnostics; sample preparation