Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, UK.
Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, Kings College London, UK.
Lab Chip. 2019 Aug 7;19(15):2537-2548. doi: 10.1039/c9lc00400a. Epub 2019 Jul 10.
We present approaches to facilitate the use of microfluidics outside of the laboratory, in our case within a clinical setting and monitoring from human subjects, where the complexity of microfluidic devices requires high skill and expertise and would otherwise limit translation. Microfluidic devices show great potential for converting complex laboratory protocols into on-chip processes. We demonstrate a flexible microfluidic platform can be coupled to microfluidic biosensors and used in conjunction with clinical microdialysis. The versatility is demonstrated through a series of examples of increasing complexity including analytical processes relevant to a clinical environment such as automatic calibration, standard addition, and more general processes including system optimisation, reagent addition and homogenous enzyme reactions. The precision and control offered by this set-up enables the use of microfluidics by non-experts in clinical settings, increasing uptake and usage in real-world scenarios. We demonstrate how this type of system is helpful in guiding physicians in real-time clinical decision-making.
我们提出了一些方法，旨在促进微流控技术在实验室以外的环境中的应用，在我们的案例中，是在临床环境中对人体进行监测，在这种情况下，微流控设备的复杂性需要高度的技能和专业知识，否则将限制其转化。微流控设备在将复杂的实验室方案转化为芯片上的过程方面显示出巨大的潜力。我们展示了一个灵活的微流控平台可以与微流控生物传感器耦合，并与临床微透析一起使用。通过一系列越来越复杂的例子来展示其多功能性，这些例子包括与临床环境相关的分析过程，如自动校准、标准添加，以及更一般的过程，如系统优化、试剂添加和均相酶反应。这种设置提供的精度和控制使得非专业人员也能够在临床环境中使用微流控技术，从而增加了在实际场景中的采用和使用。我们展示了这种类型的系统如何有助于指导医生进行实时临床决策。
