New tech could aid rapid medical diagnostic tools

Microfluidic devices underpin lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies, which are developed to provide the rapid diagnoses that are needed at point of care for the effective treatment of many diseases. The Bristol team said their new technology is a fast, reliable and cost-effective alternative for producing the soft-lithographic moulds used for fabricating microfluidic devices.

Published in the journal PLOS ONE, their study explains how fabrication of microfluidic devices with channel dimensions around the width of a human hair could be accessible and affordable using simple, low-cost 3D printing techniques and open-source resources developed by the team.

“Previously, techniques for producing the soft-lithographic scaffolds/moulds [microfluidic channel patterns] were time-consuming and extremely expensive, while other low-cost alternatives were prone to unfavourable properties,” said the study’s lead author Dr Robert Hughes. “This development could put LOC prototyping into the hands of researchers and clinicians who know the challenges best, in particular those in resource-limited settings where rapid diagnostics may often have the greatest impact.”