Smartphone-powered microchip for at-home diagnosis

Microfluidics involves the study and manipulation of liquids at a very small scale. A popular application in the field is developing ‘lab-on-a-chip’ technology, or the ability to create devices that can diagnose diseases from a very small biological sample such as blood or urine.

Scientists already have portable devices for diagnosing some conditions, rapid Covid-19 antigen tests being one example. However, a challenge in engineering more sophisticated diagnostic chips — for example, to identify the specific strain of Covid-19 or measure biomarkers like gluclose or cholesterol — is the fact they need so many moving parts.

Chips like these would require materials to seal the liquid inside, pumps and tubing to manipulate the liquid and wires to activate those pumps. These materials are difficult to scale down to the micro level.

Now, the Minnesota team has reportedly developed a microfluidic device that functions without all of those bulky components. 

“It’s not an exaggeration that a state-of-the-art, microfluidic lab-on-a-chip system is very labour intensive to put together,” said Sang-Hyun Oh, an electrical and computer engineering professor and senior author of the study.