microfluidic medical devices


Tewari Kumar P., Decrop D., Safdar S., Passaris I., Kokalj T., Puers R., Aertsen A., Spasic D., Lammertyn J. Williams et al. This could be due to the tedious process of fabricating a chip and the absence of a killer application that would outperform existing traditional methods.. The toolset available to microfluidic designers is a little different than pulling out a Moody diagram and calculating your pressure drop in a pipe. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Microfluidics is still developing as a field of science, but it's already showing promise in several applications related to the medical devices sector, A lab-on-chip microfluidics device compared in scale to a matchstick (Credit: Flikr/Stefan_-). Advances in the field of microfluidics are considered one of the main breakthroughs of this decade in the medical devices sector, leading to several applications that hold promise for better understanding the human body. darwin.reyes@nist.gov, b SMALL (Sensors and MicroActuators Learning Lab), Department of Electrical Engineering & Department of Biomedical Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY-Buffalo), Buffalo, NY 14260, USA; Received 2020 Mar 30; Accepted 2020 Mar 30. Microfluidics is still barely known outside the world of engineering and medical devices. However, in many instances, the fluid interaction challenges are more easily solved, which can be attributed to the very low Reynolds Number found in these systems. Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies This, its believed, will provide a framework for understanding the differences seen in cells and how they relate to the occurrence and development of human disease. I am sure that this Special Issue will be of high interest for many areas of research involved in the multidisciplinary field of biomedical microfluidic devices. Right now the application of microfluidics-based CRISPR techniques are confined to research laboratories, where companies like Berkley-based Indee Labs believe theyve reached proof of concept. Wang A., Koh D., Schneider P., Breloff E., Oh K.W. Dont throw out the textbook when deciding on permutations, reason out what should intuitively work and observe the results and bracket accordingly. In this spirit of changing up and creating new ideas and techniques for this young science, a group of scientists from the University of Washington has taken this idea and run with it. Suitable prototyping techniques may include cut paper stock, laser or knife cut plastic sheets, Micro-SLA, or possibly soft lithography with a PDMS transfer. But scalability has remained a problem, and thats where Indee Labs believes its application of microfluidics in which the CRISPR Cas-9 protein can be simultaneously delivered to tens of millions of T-cells at a micrometre scale can decrease the cost of immunotherapy and make it available to more patients. provided correct acknowledgement is given. government site. If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission The use of the polymer for this application was a world first, and could be revolutionary in the field of microfluidics. Multidisciplinary Role of Microfluidics for Biomedical and Diagnostic Applications: Biomedical Microfluidic Devices. An example could be a disposable ELISA assay on a plastic device that, on the palm of your hand, processes a drop of blood and tells you the levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), an indicator of heart failure. [6] studied two inertial separation techniques using a spiral microchannel and a contractionexpansion array for the investigation of leukocyte viability and damage, along with the separation efficiency of the devices. Commonly known as lab-on-chip technology, a plethora of companies have condensed the interaction between reagents and human biological material in a typical PCR-based test onto a microchip, which is programmed to add each to a reaction micro chamber and indicate the existence of virus cells. This is one of 20 research programs in CDRHs Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories (OSEL). The .gov means its official. and transmitted securely. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help MEMS based Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic devices, Lab-on-chip (LOC), patient monitoring, drug delivery, and implantable devices are revolutionizing the bio-medical and healthcare markets. You do not have JavaScript enabled. [5] present a digital microfluidic droplet device for single bacterium capture and selective retrieval from a population using optical tweezers. Develop appropriate metrology early and ensure it is properly validated and calibrated to recognized standards, Pay close attention to surface tension of prototyped materials versus production materials, Utilize a clean room or laminar flow hood during assembly to reduce unwanted artifacts. In more detail (and laymans terms), PDMS is a form of silicone polymer. Accessibility Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site. However, teams of researchers around the world continue to develop the practice as a science and their discoveries are revealing a vast array of potential applications. All that is holding them back is the key product to get them there. 2000 - 2022, Micralyne, Inc. MEMS Foundary. Karimi S., Farr-Llads J., Mir E., Escolar G., Casals-Terr J. Hemostasis-On-a-Chip: Impedance Spectroscopy Meets Microfluidics for Hemostasis Evaluation. This Special Issue of Micromachines, entitled Biomedical Microfluidic Devices 2019, provides a discussion of the technical challenges associated with developing microfluidic devices for biomedical applications. What this essentially means is that a type of polymer previously thought to be unviable in 3D printing has been used to develop new lab-on-chip processes that could be essential to future medical devices. Each of these packages have strengths and weaknesses associated with them with particle and surface interactions generally being claimed as expertise fields for FLUENT (with ANSYS as a complimentary package), and integrated multiphysical analysis generally being claimed as COMSOLs territory. PDMS devices previously had to be fabricated by moulding using slow, expensive human labour, but thanks to this research, 3D printable PDMS resin is now available, and Folch hopes this will change medical device manufacturing. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. The team has developed new techniques for a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device that involves 3D printing the devices with a new type of rubber polymer that could wipe hours of human labour off the development process, and deliver the product much more quickly and efficiently. The FDA has seen substantial growth in the number of medical device submissions that use microfluidics, with an increase of more than 400% from 2013 to 2018 based on a three-year moving average. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (. A Low-Cost, Rapidly Integrated Debubbler (RID) Module for Microfluidic Cell Culture Applications. Using impedance spectroscopy, Karimi et al. The study, led by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, found that in recent years, 3D printing has been drawing much interest from the research community. PMC legacy view Micropumping: One feature that is highly demanded in biomedical lab-on-chip or point-of-care devices is compact, robust, self-driven micropumping without any complex external systems. PDMS is a very interesting material for many reasons it is biocompatible, transparent, flexible, inert, impermeable to water, gas-permeable, and it is now copyright-free as its patent has expired, Folch says. Worldwide, the microfluidics industry has grown steadily over the last 5 years, with the market for microfluidic medical devices experiencing a compound growth rate of 22%. In 2016, he released a report about his breakthrough on the stereolithographic 3D printing of PDMS, a biocompatible transparent rubber for microfluidic components. Medical Device applications in microfluidics are being enhanced by electric field manipulation, novel ligand sequestration, photometrics, spectroscopy, florescence, and a whole host of adjunct technologies. Advancement in MEMS technology has facilitated research and development of novel biomedical devices. We then describe the existing gaps in the standardization of flow control, interconnections, component integration, manufacturing, assembly, packaging, reliability, performance of microfluidic elements and safety testing of microfluidic devices throughout the entire product life cycle. Be specific in posing questions to 3rd parties. Appropriate assessments of device performance also remain a bottleneck for microfluidic devices. Simply stated, the salient features of PDMS moulding and biocompatibility means that 3D printing is not quite there yet, he says. Among these, a vacuum-assisted pumping method utilizing the gas permeability or solubility of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is extremely suitable for many biomedical microfluidic systems due to its simple implementation. The impact of flow-related failures on microfluidic device performance are not well understood. This is because the use of 3D printing in microfluidics will allow greater design efficiency in projects like modular 3D designs, greater 3D complexity, personalisation at little extra cost and in-silico testing of designs before they are even printed and greater fabrication efficiency, with assembly-free and automated fabrication, zero lead time, reduced waste and zero unsold inventory. Baydoun et al. Do not expect your expensive software package will do it all for you. Wang et al. An official website of the United States government, : The potential applications in the medical space are nearly limitless and with advancements in micro fabrication, have become very cost effective. One of the most recent instances of microfluidics in its application to CRISPR is in Covid-19 testing but the same approach is currently being applied to editing the genome. * Microfluidic devices and systems are well-suited for the manipulation of biomolecules, cells, or particles. to access the full features of the site or access our, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, MS8120, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899 USA, enablingMNT, Drakensteynlaan 34, Dordrecht, Netherlands, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, WO 62, Room 2120, Silver Spring, MD, 20993 USA, IMT Masken und Teilungen AG, Im Langacher 46, 8606 Greifensee, Switzerland, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland, Federal Institute of Metrology METAS, Lindenweg 50, 3003 Bern-Wabern, Switzerland, microfluidic ChipShop GmbH, Stockholmer Strae 20, 07747 Jena, Germany. Standards reside at the core of mature supply chains generating economies of scale and forging a consistent pathway to match stakeholder expectations, thus creating a foundation for successful commercialization. This Special Issue consists of nine high-quality papers, including one insightful review article [2]. The new PMC design is here! To prevent air bubble entry into microfluidic channels, they demonstrated a debubbler module that can rapidly remove bubble volumes spanning three orders of magnitude from segmented flows, at flow rates compatible with those required for microfluidic shear stimulation studies. The measurement of Ki would be beneficial for the study of the torque in ER, the force in twDEP, the dielectric properties of cells, or physical phenotyping of different cells. Given the benefits of reduced sample volume, highly predictable fluid dynamics, high resolution and sensitivity, and wafer-level scalability, Microfluidics are being used in numerous applications. All rights reserved. Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland, f But that remaining 0.1% can account for more than three million differences between one persons genome and anothers those differences are called mutations or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). As fluid flow becomes dominated by fluid viscosity, the uniformity of the flow fields becomes predictable and simplifications such as Stokes Flow and pressure drop calculations may be applied. [3] report the study of the impedance behavior of platelet-poor plasma (PPP) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in a microflow chamber with interchangeable biomimetic surfaces to evaluate global hemostasis. To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the [4] study a simple microfluidic device using planar electrodes for the measurement of the imaginary part of the ClausiusMossotti factor, Ki, for cells and particles involved in electrorotation (ER) and travelling wave dielectrophoresis (twDEP). Join over 6000 medical device professionals who receive our engineering, regulatory and commercialization insights and tips every month. Microfluidics refers to the control and manipulation of tiny amounts of fluids in sub-millimeter channels and other structures. 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This allows for more accurate study of complex mechanisms underlying tissue growth, renewal, and disease than any current in vitro models, without the difficulties inherent to in vivo studies. Before The compound is also widely used in a host of chemical-processing fields. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. The One of the major constraints in the field of medicine and medical research is the number of staff it takes to complete certain procedures, like diagnostic testing or protein engineering but microfluidics continues to make scalability for ex vitro processes a reality. Tool #2 Multiphysics Modeling An alternative to in-house. Please answer a few questions about our website. I look forward to you sharing your stories of technical challenges and great solutions in the additional Special Issue of Micromachines: Biomedical Microfluidic Devices 2020. Microfluidics-based devices rely largely on costly clinical data for demonstrating device performance and effectiveness. will also be available for a limited time. Branching out the use of microfluidics to different areas is something that has been thought of for years, but now several new products and breakthroughs are making this idea a possibility. Sensors: On-chip sensors integrated with microfluidic devices have great potential in lab-on-chip or stand-alone systems for various biological and biomedical applications. These lab-on-chip diagnostic tests have been used to detect other conditions, but its believed that the lack of testing capacity in several developed countries provided a new impetus for the creation of commercially viable testing kits some expect will lead to improvements in other microfluidics-based assays. Call us on 1.780.431.4400 or email us at sales@micralyne.com, 1911 94 Street , Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6N 1E6. Materials and microfluidic device manufacturing processes, as well as key factors that impact device quality and performance during scale-up. Ready to discuss project needs? Folch believes these critical barriers were an issue in the past, and have now been largely overcome, but niggling issues persist. We start by acknowledging the progress that has been made in various areas over the past decade. Clarify if your software package will model particle interactions and/or specific physical phenomena of interest. Fluid movement in prototypes is often achieved with syringe pumps, Compact Disk like cartridges, or off the shelf microfluidic pump elements. And when in doubt, remember Steve Jobs: Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. Investigation of Leukocyte Viability and Damage in Spiral Microchannel and Contraction-Expansion Array. If you continue using our website, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website. Once a model has been verified, optimization of critical geometric features, electrical frequencies, and/or other key features, can be quickly iterated In Silco. Microfluidics also plays host to very specific phenomenon like Electrowetting and Marangoni effects whereby electrical and density gradients interact with surface tension to influence flow properties that can make first principles calculations even more challenging. A few key tips when considering Multiphysical Simulations include: Depending on the phenomenon you are trying to exploit, a Monte Carlo approach with the myriad of rapid prototyping techniques available today may be the fastest and most cost effective method to prove out designs. To overcome the challenges associated with this feature, a variety of pumping methods have been developed, such as finger-actuated pumping, capillary pumping, gravity-driven pumping, and pre-degassed pumping. The .gov means its official.Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. The software is a tool you still need an expert at the tiller. Among cell manipulation techniques, the use of inertial microfluidics using no external forces is of great interest, because microfluidic systems are simple and suitable for high-throughput cell sorting and analysis. Considered the most reliable assay for the virus, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have become viable at the nanoscale due to advances in the field. FOIA The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the enablingMNT, Drakensteynlaan 34, Dordrecht, Netherlands, c We try to keep our focus on disruptive applications and, to me, the most disruptive of all is portable automation that is, the ability to produce microfluidic diagnostic assays that are as portable and intuitive to use as a smartphone, says Folch. Medtronic, DaVita to create new health technology company for kidney care, The Versi PD Cycler System conceived and developed by Debiotech and licensed to Fresenius Medical Care receives FDA clearance, Baxter Announces U.S. FDA Clearance of ST Set Used to Help Treat Acute Kidney Injury Patients in the Hospital, entered the fray of science as a technique for editing genes, Checkpoint Surgical expands nerve care portfolio with new nerve cutting kit, Researchers from NEI discover details of rare eye disorder, Labcorp plans to spin off clinical development business, OptraSCAN secures CE-IVDR for OS-Ultra digital pathology system, Viz.ai gets FDA approval for AI-backed solution to detect subdural haemorrhage. Its applications range from contact lenses and medical devices to elastomers; it is also present in shampoos (the dimethicone it contains is what makes hair shiny and slippery), food (as an antifoaming agent), caulking, lubricants and heat-resistant tiles. Many common failure modes associated with microfluidic devices involve fluid flow. Albert Folch has been working in the fields of marrying science, engineering and genetics since the 1980s. Microfluidics has become almost synonymous with the term for its biomedical uses, lab-on-a-chip, but its application to 3D printing has been less well known until very recently. It also enables manufacturers to create devices matched to a patients anatomy (patient-specific devices) or devices with very complex internal structures. Baydoun M., Treizeibr A., Follet J., Vanneste S.B., Creusy C., Dercourt L., Delaire B., Mouray A., Viscogliosi E., Certad G., et al. Outside of these recent applications, the benefits of devices enabled by microfluidics range from more efficient means of editing genes to mapping the molecular state of every single cell type in a healthy human. But this raises the question of where this leaves us and, more importantly, what uses the medical device manufacturing sector can get out of this technology. Cell manipulation: The manipulation of individual cells of interest is critical to further studies of phenotypic heterogeneity occurring due to molecular and cellular stochastic processes, phases of cells, asymmetric partitioning during cell division, and inhomogeneous cellular environments. Both SNPs and mutations are mistakes made during the replication of DNA a constantly occurring process but mutations happen in less than 1% of humans, while SNPs occur in more than 1%. An official website of the United States government. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Multiphysics modeling is the use of high end Finite Volume or Finite Element Analysis Software, such as FLUENT, ANSYS and COMSOL. This article provides a unique perspective on the need for the development of standards specific to the emerging biomedical field of microfluidics. Defer sophisticated or fully integrated prototypes until you have a solid understanding of your physics and have verified with simple mock-ups. Oh K.W. We have developed a polyethylene diacrylate (PEG-DA) resin that has excellent characteristics; we can even culture neurons on 3D-printed petri dishes. and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. Where things start falling apart is with the unique properties of microfluidic systems. Williams M.J., Lee N.K., Mylott J.A., Mazzola N., Ahmed A., Abhyankar V.V. The question that must be asked is, if these devices are being developed so widely, what can be done with them? A few keys to success include: Conclusion:Using thehigh level tips provided above, Im sure youll be stoked about using microfluidic development tools in medical devices. Your email address will not be published. [10] introduced a compact, syringe-assisted, vacuum-driven micropumping module that can be easily attached to the outlet of any existing microfluidics device, providing greater flexibility in many biomedical applications. The 13-year-long Human Genome Project (HGP) is heralded as one of the greatest scientific achievements of the past century for mapping the DNA sequence of which every human shares a 99.9% concordance rate. Lin et al. Professor Albert Folch, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington and a specialist in microfluidics, talks to Medical Device Developments about his own work in the area of 3D printing microfluidic components, as well as other new trends. Please enable JavaScript Measurement of the Imaginary Part of the Clausius-Mossotti Factor of Particle/Cell via Dual Frequency Electrorotation. If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures Heis a strong advocateof using microfluidic development tools to designmedical devices. Lin Y.-Y., Lo Y.-J., Lei U. 3D-printed microfluidics are in a pivotal place where they can be become integral to the development of medical devices (especially in the biomedical field) a labour, resource, money and time-saving initiative that could help bring products to the mainstream. The technology has yet to reach dinner-table conversation in the way that automation, 3D printing or medical imaging machines have. please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page. The field of study defined as the movement of liquids and mixtures at a nano, pico, or even smaller scale began in the field of consumer electronics, powering essential items like the humble office inkjet printer. The hope shared by researchers conducting such experiments is that isolating specific abnormalities in genetic code could shed more light on the ultimate causes of certain diseases, as well as how experimental treatments impact them. [7] present ex vivo intestinal tissue culture models to cultivate full-thickness murine colon explants, which maintain the morphological structures of the tissues for up to eight days. Until now, microfluidic devices were almost always fabricated by PDMS moulding, which requires manual, lengthy procedures that make PDMS devices very expensive to commercialise. Another development Indee Labs brings to the table is the ability to deliver the Cas-9 protein to T-cells without using a lentiviral vector a common delivery vehicle derived from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and used for its ability to invade T-cells. Its very simple: we need a cost-efficient alternative to PDMS moulding. These capabilities have sparked huge interest in 3D printing of medical devices and other products, including food, household items and automotive parts, FDAs guidance continues. All these elements are virtually absent in PDMS moulding, and thats the reason why PDMS devices are notoriously expensive to share and commercialise, Folch adds. IMT Masken und Teilungen AG, Im Langacher 46, 8606 Greifensee, Switzerland, e The site is secure. Complimentary Whitepaper: Microfluidic MEMS devices and fabrication processes, MicraFluidics Silicon Microfluidic MEMS Process. Because of all this, PDMS moulding has been the technique of choice for prototyping biomedical microdevices for almost two decades now.. 8600 Rockville Pike A Compact, Syringe-Assisted, Vacuum-Driven Micropumping Device. Mark Drlik is a Mechanical Engineer and Project Manager at StarFish Medical.