Recently, the droplet microfluidic system attracts interests due to its high throughput and low cost to detect and screen. The picoliter micro-droplets from droplet microfluidics are uniform with respect to the size and shape, and could be used as monodispensed micro-reactors for encapsulation and detection of single cell or its metabolites. Therefore, it is indispensable to characterize micro-droplet and its application from droplet microfluidic system. We first constructed the custom-designed droplet microfluidic system for generating micro-droplets, and then used the micro-droplets to encapsulate important amino acids such as glutamic acid, phenylalanine, tryptophan or tyrosine to test the droplets' properties, including the stability, diffusivity and bio-compatibility for investigating its application for amino acid detection and sorting. The custom-designed droplet microfluidic system could generate the uniformed micro-droplets with a controllable size between 20 to 50 microm. The micro-droplets could be stable for more than 20 h without cross-contamination or fusion each other. The throughput of detection and sorting of the system is about 600 micro-droplets per minute. This study provides a high-throughput platform for the analysis and screening of amino acid-producing microorganisms.
Amino Acids ; isolation & purification ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; Microfluidics ; instrumentation

In recent years, many human central nervous systems (CNS) of microfluidic platforms and related disease models in vitro have been built with the continuous development of the microfluidic technology and biological microelectronics mechanical systems technology. Microplatforms have emerged to provide a better approximation of the in vivo scenario with better control of the structure, microenvironment and stimuli. This review summarized the basic technology of microfluidic chips in CNS and the application in CNS diseases. In addition, the research of microfluidic chip in CNS diseases has been also prospected. We also highlight challenges that can be addressed with interdisciplinary efforts to achieve more biomimicry.
Central Nervous System Diseases ; Humans ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; Microfluidics

In recent 10 years, microfluidic technology has developed rapidly. Hence the speed of analysis can be upgraded, the performance be improved and the consumption of sample and reagent be reduced. In this review, we introduce the design, fabrication and application of microfluidic immunoassay chip.
Humans ; Immunoassay ; methods ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; trends ; Microfluidics ; trends

Microfluidic chip technology integrates the sample preparation, reaction, separation and detection on a chip. It consists a network of microchannels, which controls the whole system through fluid. With the advantages of portability, high throughput, and the ability to simulate the microenvironment in vivo, it has a broad application prospect in the research of disease diagnosis, pathogenesis and drug screening. Pulmonary inflammatory disease is a common disease usually caused by bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Early pneumonia is often difficult to diagnose due to lack of obvious respiratory symptoms or the symptoms are mostly atypical, but the disease progresses rapidly. Recently, microfluidic chip technology has been increasingly used to the study of pulmonary inflammatory diseases. In particular, it has been used to develop a "lung-on-a-chip" model, which can reproduce the key structure, function and mechanical properties of human alveolar capillary interface (i.e., the basic functional unit of a living lung), and well simulate the alveoli in vitro. Compared with the cell and animal models, this multifunctional micro experimental platform has great advantages. This article summarizes the advances of using microfluidic chips for the research and diagnosis of pulmonary inflammatory diseases, with the aim to provide new ideas for researchers in this area.
Animals ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; Humans ; Lung ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; Microfluidics

Microfluidics is the science and technology to manipulate small amounts of fluids in micro/nano-scale space. Multiple modules could be integrated into microfluidic device, and due to its advantages of microminiaturization and controllability, microfluidics has drawn extensive attention since its birth. In this paper, the literature data related to microfluidics research from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2021 were obtained from Web of Science Core Collection database. CiteSpace 5.8.R3 software was used for bibliometrics analysis, so as to explore the research progress and development trends of microfluidics research at home and abroad. Based on the analysis of 50 129 articles, it could be seen that microfluidics was a hot topic of global concern, and the United States had a certain degree of authority in this field. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University not only had a high number of publications, but also had strong influence and extensive cooperation network. Combined with ultrasonic, surface modification and sensor technology, researchers constructed paper-based microfluidic, droplet microfluidic and digital microfluidic platforms, which were applied in the field of immediate diagnosis, nucleic acid and circulating tumor cell analysis of in vitro diagnosis and organ-on-a-chip. China was one of the countries with a high level of research in the field of microfluidics, while the industrialization of high-end products needed to be improved. As people's demand for disease risk prediction and health management increased, promoting microfluidic technological innovation and achievement transformation is of great significance to safeguard people's life and health.
China ; Humans ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; Microfluidics ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis

The kidney is the body's most important organ and the protein components in urine could be detected for diagnosing certain diseases. The amount of IgG protein in urine could be used to determine the degree of kidney function damage. IgG protein in human urine was detected by vertical flow paper-based microfluidic chip, double-antibody sandwich immunoreaction, and cell phone image processing. The results showed that using an IgG antibody concentration of 500 μg/mL and a gold standard antibody concentration of 100 μg/mL, the image signal showed a good linear relationship in the range of IgG concentration of 0.2-3.2 μg/mL, with R²=0.973 3 achieved. A complete set of detection devices were designed and the detection method showed good non-specificity.
Humans ; Microfluidics ; Immunoglobulin G ; Kidney ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques

Microfluidic chip is a novel technology platform, in which microchannels are fabricated in different materials. The ability to precisely control the microflows makes it possible to mimic the microenvironment of cells in physiological or pathological states, which provides many distinct advantages for cell research. In this paper are reviewed the design and fabrication of microfluidic chip, the application of microfluidic chip in cell culture and cell researches; the enormous advantages of microfluidic chips in precise experimental control of the cellular microenvironment are introduced.
Cell Adhesion ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Cell Movement ; Cells, Cultured ; Cellular Microenvironment ; Humans ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; methods

In this article, a cell culture microchip was fabricated on the SU-8 mold based on polymer-MEMS process. In the microchip, the cell culture area was separated with microchannel by a microgap, which kept the cell culture area independent, but also regulated the micro-environment of extracellular matrix by the microfluidic flow. The cell culture microchip provided a new platform for cell research.
3T3 Cells ; Animals ; Cell Culture Techniques ; methods ; Mice ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; methods

Microbe is extremely abundant in nature, and its size has a very wide coverage from nano- to micro-scale making it suitable to be processed at multi-scale level as natural "building blocks" and "chassis cells". Biofabrication based on microbes is an artificial manipulation on microbes to assemble functional materials and devices by using the specific structures and various biological functions of microbes. In the meantime, the novel strategies of biofarication enables us to study the behavioral details of microbes, which will provide new platforms for uncovering the unsolved basic scientific problems of microbes. In this paper, we reviewed the frontier and progress in biofabrication from nano- and micro-scale in microbes that were manipulated as structured "building blocks" or functional "micro/nano robots".
Bacteria ; metabolism ; Biomimetics ; methods ; Biotechnology ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; methods ; Nanotechnology ; Viruses ; metabolism

With the continuous development in microfluidic fabrication technology, microfluidic analysis has evolved from a concept to one of research frontiers in last twenty years. The research of enzymes and enzyme inhibitors based on microfluidic devices has also made great progress. Microfluidic technology improved greatly the analytical performance of the research of enzymes and enzyme inhibitors by reducing the consumption of reagents, decreasing the analysis time, and developing automation. This review focuses on the development and classification of enzymes and enzyme inhibitors research based on microfluidic devices.
Enzyme Inhibitors ; metabolism ; Enzymes ; metabolism ; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques ; methods ; Microfluidics ; methods