title: Can microfluidics address biomanufacturing challenges in drug/gene/cell therapies?
abstract: Translation of any inventions into products requires manufacturing. Development of drug/gene/cell delivery systems will eventually face manufacturing challenges, which require the establishment of standardized processes to produce biologically-relevant products of high quality without incurring prohibitive cost. Microfluidicu technologies present many advantages to improve the quality of drug/gene/cell delivery systems. They also offer the benefits of automation. What remains unclear is whether they can meet the scale-up requirement. In this perspective, we discuss the advantages of microfluidic-assisted synthesis of nanoscale drug/gene delivery systems, formation of microscale drug/cell-encapsulated particles, generation of genetically engineered cells and fabrication of macroscale drug/cell-loaded micro-/nano-fibers. We also highlight the scale-up challenges one would face in adopting microfluidic technologies for the manufacturing of these therapeutic delivery systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Hon Fai
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Siying
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Kam W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Leong
keywords: biomanufacturing; microencapsulation; microfiber; microfluidics; nanoparticle