Lab-on-chip uses paper strips

The technique represents a way to enhance commercially available diagnostic devices that use paper-strip assays, such as those that test for diabetes and pregnancy.

’With current systems that use paper test strips you can measure things such as pH or blood sugar, but you can’t perform more complex chemical assays,’ said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering.

’This new approach offers the potential to extend the inexpensive paper-based systems so that they are able to do more complicated multiple analyses on the same piece of paper. It’s a generic platform that can be used for a variety of applications.’

Current lab-on-a-chip technology is relatively expensive because chips must be specifically designed to perform certain types of chemical analyses, with channels created in glass or plastic and small pumps and valves directing the flow of fluids for testing.

The chips are being used for various applications in medicine and research, measuring specific types of cells and molecules in a patient’s blood, monitoring micro-organisms in the environment and in foods, and separating biological molecules for laboratory analyses. But the chips, which are roughly palm-size or smaller, are complex to design and manufacture.