Microfluidic devices can be thought of as comprising interconnected miniaturized compartments performing multiple experimental tasks individually or in parallel in an integrated fashion. Due to its small size, portability, and low cost, attempts have been made to incorporate detection assays into microfluidic platforms for diseases such as cancer and infection. Some of these technologies have served as point-of-care and sample-to-answer devices. The methods for detecting biomarkers in different diseases usually share similar principles and can conveniently be adapted to cope with arising health challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic is one such challenge that is testing the performance of both our conventional and newly-developed disease diagnostic technologies. In this mini-review, we will first look at the progress made in the past few years in applying microfluidics for liquid biopsy and infectious disease detection. Following that, we will use the current pandemic as an example to discuss how such technological advancements can help in the current health challenge and better prepare us for future ones.

可以认为微流体装置包括相互连接的小型化隔室，其分别或以集成方式并行执行多个实验任务。由于其体积小，便携性好和成本低，已经尝试将检测分析结合到微流控平台中，以治疗癌症和感染等疾病。其中一些技术已成为即时医疗服务和从样本到答案的设备。用于检测不同疾病中生物标志物的方法通常具有相似的原理，可以方便地进行调整以应对出现的健康挑战。COVID-19大流行就是这样一种挑战，它正在测试我们传统和新兴疾病诊断技术的性能。在此迷你评论中，我们将首先看看过去几年在将微流体技术应用于液体活检和传染病检测方面取得的进展。接下来，我们将以当前的大流行为例，讨论这种技术进步如何帮助应对当前的健康挑战，并为未来的挑战做好更好的准备。