Cover Gallery
A Lab-on-Chip dedicated to 3D particle tracking based on V-shaped micro-mirrors, which are used to visualize biological specimens from different vantages. Image reproduced by permission of Aurélien Bancaud.
DOI: 10.1039/b909016a
Patterning of superhydrophobic paper substrates via desktop printers allows control of the mobility and transfer of micro-liter drops for 2D lab-on-paper applications. Image reproduced by permission of Balamurali Balu.
DOI: 10.1039/b920200P
Dispersion of the concentration front imposes a speed limit on how quickly a chemical signal can be applied in a microfluidic device. We investigate this limit using Taylor-Aris theory and finite element simulations. Image courtesy of Duane Loh.
DOI: 10.1039/b920205f
Label-free blood cell analysis is performed using a microfluidic impedance cytometry, allowing a rapid full blood count from a drop of blood. Image reproduced by permission of David Holmes and Hywel Morgan
DOI: 10.1039/b910053a
''Acoustic tweezers'' enable flexible on-chip manipulation and patterning of microparticles and cells using standing surface acoustic waves (SSAW). Image reproduced by permission of Tony Jun Huang
DOI: 10.1039/b919229h
A mathematical model was used to study the performance of an insulator-based dielectrophoretic device. It was possible to predict the location and magnitude of the regions of dielectrophoretic trapping of microparticles across an array of cylindrical insulating structures. Predictions were in agreement with experimental results. Image reproduced by permission of Sergio O. Martínez-Chapa
DOI: 10.1039/b919232H
A disposable thermochromic display comprised of paper, ink, and metal wire reveals test results for low-cost diagnostic devices. Image reproduced by permission of George M. Whitesides andAdam C. Siegel.
DOI: 10.1039/b905832j
A microfluidic chip incorporating a surface acoustic wave pump is used to study the binding of site-specific drug carriers to cells in the presence of physiological flow conditions. Image reproduced by permission of Franz Gabor
DOI: 10.1039/b918049b
A new dimension to present sensing systems is introduced by enabling dual purpose silicon transistor-heaters that serve both as field effect sensors and temperature controllers that could perform localized bio-chemical reactions. Image reproduced by permission of Rashid Bashir
DOI: 10.1039/b918053m
This image presents a multiple modular microfluidic (M3) reactor for the scaled out continuous synthesis of polymer particles. Each of the eight modules consists of 16 individual parallel microfluidic reactors. Image courtesy of Shane Belcourt. Image reproduced by permission of Eugenia Kumacheva.
DOI: 10.1039/B906626H
Artwork of the CMOS-MEA chip that enables to observe as high resolution electrophysiological activity movies extracellular neuronal signaling expressed by in in-vitro neuronal networks. Image courtesy of Ivan Berdondini. Image reproduced by permission of Luca Berdondini.
DOI: 10.1039/B916527B
Smooth-swimming E. coli, captured in a three-dimensional protein chamber, direct the orbital rotation of a microsphere (diameter, 5 mm) along a clockwise trajectory. Image reproduced by permission of Bryan Kaehr and Jason Shear.
DOI: 10.1039/B916531M
See pp. 2425-2427. The cover is a montage of eleven snapshots taken from the reviews featured in this themed issue on the fundamental principles and techniques in microfluidics; with thanks to all contributors for permission to use these images.
DOI: 10.1039/B911520J
See Davé et al., pp. 2576-2581. Platform for studying single axon injury and regeneration. Image reproduced by permission of Digant Davé
DOI: 10.1039/B915444M
See Whitesides et al., pp. 2293-2305. Water drops freezing at a temperature around -37°C while flowing in a microfluidic device equipped with microthermometers. Image reproduced by permission of George M. Whitesides.
DOI: 10.1039/B906198C
The integrated microfluidic chip is capable of generating a library of compounds based on in situ click chemistry, and these molecules were sequentially analyzed by mass spectroscopy. Image reproduced by permission of Hsian-Rong Tseng.
DOI: 10.1039/B914009N
A tunable particle-sorter for microfluidic applications using time-modulated dielectrophoresis. By pulsing the dielectrophoretic force in time, the order of separation of particles by size can be changed and mid-size particles can be extracted from a heterogeneous population in one step. Image reproduced by permission of Kian-Meng Lim.
DOI: 10.1039/B914012N
Artist's rendering of a label-free photonic waveguide biosensor fabricated as part of an integrated circuit chip. Circular patches of immobilized probe and target molecules alter the evanescent light distribution, which is locally sensed with an underlying photodetector array. Image courtesy of John Joseph (jjosephgallery.com). Image reproduced by permission of Kevin Lear.
DOI: 10.1039/B902111F
Autonomous microfluidic sorting technique for directionally oriented (anisotropic) microstructures by their orientation state (flipped and unflipped, rotated and unrotated) in solution using the concept of railed microfluidics. Image reproduced by permission of Sunghoon Kwon.
DOI: 10.1039/B912951K
A convenient and affordable approach to implement dielectrophoresis (DEP) particle manipulation without microfabrication on a chip is demonstrated. By using reusable electrodes on a printed circuit board and a PDMS microfluidic channel on a glass coverslip, mammalian cells and polystyrene beads are manipulated aligned with DEP. Image reproduced by permission of Rashid Bashir.
DOI: 10.1039/B912955N
We describe a novel lab-on-a-tube that can simultaneously record multiple physiological
parameters including pressure, temperature, oxygen and glucose in the brain and spinal
fluid. This prototype will be developed for clinical monitoring of patients with brain
injuries and other serious neurological disorders. Image reproduced by permission of Chunyan Li.
DOI: 10.1039/B900651F
Vesicles formed by microfluidic jetting (recolored fluorescent micrograph). A mixture of fluorescent beads is encapsulated within the vesicles during formation. Image courtesy of Jeanne C. Stachowiak, David L. Richmond, and Daniel A. Fletcher
DOI: 10.1039/B911749K
A new strategy is described for exploiting the sharply reversible change in size and magnetophoretic mobility of smart magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) to perform bioseparation and diagnostic target isolation under continuous flow processing conditions. Image reproduced by permission of Patrick Stayton
DOI: 10.1039/B911752K
Microfluidic distillation is made possible using capillary forces and segmented flow. The cover illustrates that separation is realized in component microfluidic systems as well as on a single chip.
Image reproduced by permission of Klavs Jensen.DOI: 10.1039/B901790A
Fluorescent Activated Droplet Sorting (FADS) enables microfluidic-based high-throughput selection of single microorganisms based on their enzymatic activity. Image reproduced by permission of Andrew Griffiths.
DOI: 10.1039/B910847P
A high-throughput, comtamination-free, chip-to-chip nanoliter microfluidic dispenser is demonstrated to perform the accurate dispensation of liquid samples from tens to hundreds of nanoliters, indicating the high flexibility and wide applications of this novel system. Image reproduced by permission of Yuanyi Huang
DOI: 10.1039/B910852C
Complex 3D structures are generated via optofluidic maskless lithography in a membrane-mounted microfluidic channel. In this way, heterotypic cells can be patterned in hydrogels in 3D morphologies.. Image reproduced by permission of Sunghoon Kwon
DOI: 10.1039/B819999J
High-radix microfluidic multiplexer selectively addressing bio-samples to 4×4 well array with pressure valves of the different thresholds in a few control lines. Image reproduced by permission of Young-Ho Cho.
DOI: 10.1039/B909825A
Actuate-to-Open valves enabled the creation of a microfluidic array chip comprised of picoliter-sized wells with integrated photonic crystal biosensors for combinatorial mixing and subsequent on-chip screening for biomolecular binding events.Image reproduced by permission of Paul Kenis
DOI: 10.1039/b909828n
A polymer chip with an array of ordered pillars for separations via pressure-driven liquid chromatography. Image reproduced by permission of Albert Romano-Rodriguez
DOI: 10.1039/B818918H
Electrolysis-bubble-based micropump using air bubbles to drive microfluidics/blood has features of room-temperature operation and low driving voltage/power consumption without changing the properties of the sample liquid. On-chip blood transportation is demonstrated using this embedded micropump. Image reproduced by permission of Cheng-Hsien Liu
DOI: 10.1039/B908904g
Fresh out of production. A 3 x 7 cm fused silica microchip containing four horizontal 500 µm wide microchannels and 32 vertical 460 nm deep nanochannels photographed in the clean room after bonding. Image reproduced by permission of Takehiko Kitamori
DOI: 10.1039/B908908j
Delay-lines allow the incubation of microfluidic droplets in the minute to hour range directly onchip. The concepts presented overcome limitations concerning back-pressure and unequal incubation times. Image reproduced by permission of Tobias Frenz.
DOI: 10.1039/B816049J
Illustration of a curved Airy laser beam which conveys microparticles and cells over walls within a microfluidic chip. Image reproduced by permission of Joerg Baumgartl.
DOI: 10.1039/B907825H
A travelling wave dielectrophoretic pump is simply a micro channel with an electrode array, and is ideal for blood delivery since the inherent cells are served as the media for exchanging momentum between electricity and fluid mechanics. Image reproduced by permission of U. Lei.
DOI: 10.1039/B907829K
Pathogens (green) in blood (red) are magnetically opsonized (blue) before entering the micromagnetic-microfluidic blood cleansing device and magnetically pulled into a laminar stream of saline (clear) for removal. Image reproduced by permission of Donald Ingber.
DOI: 10.1039/B816986A
A micro optofluidic lens formed in a circular chamber was developed by Nguyen's group from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Image reproduced by permission of Nam-Trung Nguyen.
DOI: 10.1039/B906131M
Cells and functionalized microbeads have been arranged by manipulation based on electrophoresis and stabilized within a specific microwell electrode (MWE) in a continuous flow. The cell secretion, immunological and genetic reaction can be electrochemically detected by the MWE. Image reproduced by permission of Tomokazu Matsue and Hsien-Chang Chang.
DOI: 10.1039/B906134G
Hybrid microfluidics in action: fluorescent droplets march down an array of electrodes toward a network of microchannels for separation. Image reproduced by permission of Aaron Wheeler.
DOI: 10.1039/B820682A
On-chip DNA methylation analysis using methylation-specific PCR (MSP) within an arrayed microdroplet-in-oil platform. Image reproduced by permission of Tza-Huei Wang.
DOI: 10.1039/B905244P
3D microfiltration device within a microfluidic network is fabricated by the reported direct projection on dry-film photoresist process. Image reproduced by permission of Tingrui Pan.
DOI: 10.1039/B905247J
Mass production of regulatorycompliant microfluidic devices for clinical diagnostic. Image reproduced by permission of Daniel Chiu.
DOI: 10.1039/B818873D
A soup of composite particles prepared by lock release lithography (LRL) that provides a means for the high-throughput production of particles with complex 3D morphologies and composite particles with spatially configurable chemistries. Image reproduced by permission of Patrick Doyle.
DOI: 10.1039/B904077N
Frequency-modulated ultrasound can be used for aggregation, flow-free transport and caging of microparticles or cells in a microfluidic chip. Micrographs (left column) show caging and transport of 5-mm green beads. Particle image velocimetry diagrams (right column) for fluid flow tracking with 1-mm yellow beads. Image reproduced by permission of Otto Manneberg.
DOI: 10.1039/B816675G
Double fluorescence viability staining of the cardiac cells located in part of a microchannel upon exposure to a concentration gradient of cardiac toxin generated by the microfluidic device. Image reproduced by permission of Ali Khademhosseini.
DOI: 10.1039/B903259M
A macromolecule that specifically binds a protein and initiates polymerization upon absorbing light was used to detect and subtype the influenza virus. The readout in this assay is a crosslinked polymer. Image reproduced by permission of Christopher Bowman.
DOI: 10.1039/B816198D
A multi point force sensor array based on holographic optical tweezers has been integrated into a microfluidic device to investigate chemo-mechanical interactions of biomimetic actin networks. Image reproduced by permission of Joachim Spatz.
DOI: 10.1039/B901946B
New capillary microreactors incorporating catalytic nanoparticles confined in a mesoporous wall coating show great promise in selective hydrogenation chemistry.
DOI: 10.1039/B815716B
A photograph of a fluidic device making it possible to study directional angiogenesis in response to defined molecular gradients. Superimposed is a vascular plexus (shown in red) with induced directional sprouting.
DOI: 10.1039/B901062A
Using an adaptation of single-level isotropic wet etching, small shallow micropores are radially embedded in larger deeper microchannels for cell concentration, immobilization, and picodroplet generation.
DOI: 10.1039/B901067J
Micrograph of a solution of unlabelled double-stranded DNA, electrophoretically concentrated near a 50 mm-wide electrode.
DOI: 10.1039/B821774M
A microarray of 816 laserilluminated surface plasmon resonance imaging pixels. Each sub-micron pixel is a 3-by-3 nanohole array with surrounding Bragg mirrors, giving enhanced sensitivity and pixel-to-pixel isolation.
DOI: 10.1039/B822886H
An LCD image projected onto the photoconductive surface induces frequency-dependent AC electrokinetics, resulting in the rapid and selective microparticle concentration in an optoelectrofluidic platform.
DOI: 10.1039/B811740C
An integrated microfluidic device is developed for the characterization of drug metabolites and the assessment of their cytotoxicity simultaneously.
DOI: 10.1039/B822016F
Coupling of an enzymatic magnetobioreactor with on-chip amperometric detection can lead to extremely low limits of detection in the determination of carbofuran and other toxic substances by enzymatic inhibition.
DOI: 10.1039/B822019K
The 'Dropspots' device is used to generate arrays of drops. Cells producing the enzyme are encapsulated in drops with the fluorogenic substrate. The color gradient shows enzyme activity varies in each drop with the cell count.
DOI: 10.1039/B809670H
Femtosecond lasers are powerful tools to directly inscribe optical waveguides in lab-on-a-chips. In this way on-chip optical detection is achieved in view of compact and portable devices.
DOI: 10.1039/b821102g
A simple, robust and low dead volume world-to-chip interface for thermoplastic microfluidics employing stainless steel needles has been developed. Using interference fit and threaded needles, the simple needle ports are compatible with internal chip pressures above 40 MPa with negligible dispersion for injected analyte bands.
DOI: 10.1039/b821105c
