Microfluidic systems for fast diagnosis

In the past decade, microfabrication of miniature fluidic devices has attracted considerable interest and made substantial impact. One of the most promising applications is for biomedical applications, especially for fast diagnosis. A microfluidic system, which integrates sample pretreatment, transportation, reaction, separation, and detection on a small chip, can be realized by combining functional microfluidic components. When compared with their large-scale counterparts, the miniature system may provide advantages including compactness, lower cost, less sample/reagent consumption, automation, and higher sensitivity. In this talk, three microfluidic chips will be reviewed, including (1) an integrated microfluidic chip for fast diagnosis of infectious diseases; (2) an integrated microfluidic chip capable of performing fast detection of generic diseases; (3) an integrated microfluidic system for ELISA detection. It may provide a promising platform for clinical applications.