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Microfluidic paper-based analytical soft actuators (μPAC). Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-06 Koki Yoshida,Masahiro Tanakinoue,Hiroaki Onoe,Michinao Hashimoto
Soft actuators have developed over the last decade for diverse applications including industrial machines and biomedical devices. Integration of chemical sensors with soft actuators would be beneficial in analyzing chemical and environmental conditions, but there have been limited devices to achieve such sensing capabilities. In this work, we developed a thin-film soft actuator integrated with a paper-based
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Microfluidic digital focus assays for the quantification of infectious influenza virus. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-05 Siddharth Raghu Srimathi,Maxinne A Ignacio,Maria Rife,Sheldon Tai,Donald K Milton,Margaret A Scull,Don L DeVoe
Quantifying infectious virus is essential for vaccine development, clinical diagnostics, and infectious disease research, but current assays are constrained by long turnaround times, high costs, and laborious procedures. To address these limitations, we present a digital focus assay employing an array of independent nanoliter cell cultures. The microfluidic platform allows cells in each nanowell to
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TapeTech microfluidic connectors: adhesive tape-enabled solution for organ-on-a-chip system integration. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-05 Terry Ching,Abraham C I van Steen,Delaney Gray-Scherr,Jessica L Teo,Anish Vasan,Joshua Jeon,Jessica Shah,Aayush Patel,Amy E Stoddard,Jennifer L Bays,Jeroen Eyckmans,Christopher S Chen
A longstanding challenge in microfluidics has been the efficient delivery of fluids from macro-scale pumping systems into microfluidic devices, known as the "world-to-chip" problem. Thus far, the entire industry has accepted the use of imperfect, rigid tubing and connectors as the ecosystem within which to operate, which, while functional, are often cumbersome, labor-intensive, prone to errors, and
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Bone microphysiological models for biomedical research. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-05 Francisco Verdugo-Avello,Jacek K Wychowaniec,Carlos A Villacis-Aguirre,Matteo D'Este,Jorge R Toledo
Bone related disorders are highly prevalent, and many of these pathologies still do not have curative and definitive treatment methods. This is due to a complex interplay of multiple factors, such as the crosstalk between different tissues and cellular components, all of which are affected by microenvironmental factors. Moreover, these bone pathologies are specific, and current treatment results vary
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Multi-reactive hydrogel nanovials for temporal control of secretion capture from antibody-secreting cells. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-05 Michael Mellody,Yuta Nakagawa,Richard James,Dino Di Carlo
Antibody discovery can benefit from techniques to screen antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) at scale for the binding and functionality of a diverse set of secreted antibodies. Previously, we demonstrated the use of cavity-containing hydrogel microparticles (nanovials) coated with a single affinity agent, biotin, to capture and identify ASCs secreting antibodies against a recombinant antigen bound to the
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A sample-to-answer digital microfluidic multiplexed PCR system for syndromic pathogen detection in respiratory tract infection. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-05 Hao Bai,Jie Hu,Tangyuheng Liu,Liang Wan,Cheng Dong,Dasheng Luo,Fei Li,Zhanxin Yuan,Yunmei Tang,Tianlan Chen,Shan Wang,Hongna Gou,Yongzhao Zhou,Binwu Ying,Jin Huang,Wenchuang Walter Hu
Timely identification of infectious pathogens is crucial for the accurate diagnosis, management, and treatment of syndromic respiratory diseases. Nevertheless, the implementation of rapid, precise, and automated point-of-care testing (POCT) remains a significant challenge. This study introduces an advanced digital microfluidic (DMF) POCT testing system designed for the rapid molecular syndromic testing
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Large-scale acoustic single cell trapping and selective releasing. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-04 Xiang Zhang,Jacob Smith,Amanda Chengyi Zhou,Jacqueline Thuy-Tram Duong,Tong Qi,Shilin Chen,Yen-Ju Lin,Alexi Gill,Chih-Hui Lo,Neil Y C Lin,Jing Wen,Yunfeng Lu,Pei-Yu Chiou
Recent advancements in single-cell analysis have underscored the need for precise isolation and manipulation of individual cells. Traditional techniques for single-cell manipulation are often limited by the number of cells that can be parallel trapped and processed and usually require complex devices or instruments to operate. Here, we introduce an acoustic microfluidic platform that efficiently traps
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Precision single cell analysis to characterize host dependent antimicrobial response heterogeneity in physiological medium. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-03 Ryuichiro Abe,Jyong-Huei Lee,Siew Mei Chin,Nikhil Ram-Mohan,Kristel C Tjandra,April M Bobenchik,Kathleen E Mach,Joseph C Liao,Pak Kin Wong,Samuel Yang
Antimicrobial stewardship plays an essential role in combating the global health threat posed by multidrug-resistant pathogens. Phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is the gold standard for analyzing bacterial responses to antimicrobials. However, current AST techniques, which rely on end-point bulk measurements of bacterial growth under antimicrobial treatment in a broth solution
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Cost-effective microfluidic flow cytometry for precise and gentle cell sorting. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-03 Canfeng Yang,Chunhua He,Huasheng Zhuo,Jianxin Wang,Tuying Yong,Lu Gan,Xiangliang Yang,Lei Nie,Shuang Xi,Zhiyong Liu,Guanglan Liao,Tielin Shi
Microfluidic flow cytometry (MFCM) is considered to be an effective substitute for traditional flow cytometry, because of its advantages in terms of higher integration, smaller device size, lower cost, and higher cell sorting activity. However, MFCM still faces challenges in balancing parameters such as sorting throughput, viability, sorting efficiency, and cost. Here, we demonstrate a cost-effective
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Integrated bacterial cell lysis and DNA extraction using paper-based isotachophoresis. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-02-03 Shruti Soni,Bhushan J Toley
Bacterial infections remain a global threat, particularly in low-resource settings, where access to accurate and timely diagnosis is limited. Point-of-care nucleic acid amplification tests have shown great promise in addressing this challenge. However, their dependence on complex traditional sample preparation methods remains a major challenge. To address this limitation, we present a paper-based sample
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Densimeter-on-chip (DoC): measuring a single-cell mass density by sedimentation in microchannel flows. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-31 David Dannhauser,Maria Isabella Maremonti,Paolo Antonio Netti,Filippo Causa
Intrinsic biophysical and morphological features are essential for the label-free identification of different cell types. Indeed, apart from object size, density could represent a key parameter for single-cell analysis. However, the measurement of such a parameter is challenging. Therefore, we present a straightforward and versatile microfluidic chip. The densimeter-on-chip (DoC) measures single-cell
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Advancing microfluidic design with machine learning: a Bayesian optimization approach. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-31 Ivana Kundacina,Ognjen Kundacina,Dragisa Miskovic,Vasa Radonic
Microfluidic technology, which involves the manipulation of fluids in microchannels, faces challenges in channel design and performance optimization due to its complex, multi-parameter nature. Traditional design and optimization approaches usually rely on time-consuming numerical simulations, or on trial-and-error methods, which entail high costs associated with experimental evaluations. Additionally
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Integrating impedance cytometry with other microfluidic tools towards multifunctional single-cell analysis platforms. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-31 Marta Righetto,Cristian Brandi,Riccardo Reale,Federica Caselli
Microfluidic impedance cytometry (MIC) is a label-free technique that characterizes individual flowing particles/cells based on their interaction with a multifrequency electric field. The technique has been successfully applied in different scenarios including life-science research, diagnostics, and environmental monitoring. The aim of this review is to illustrate the fascinating opportunities enabled
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Microfluidic-based redesign of a humidity-driven energy harvester. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-31 Hirotada Hirama,Yusuke Komazaki
Integrating microfluidic elements onto a single chip offers many advantages, including miniaturization, portability, and multifunctionality, making such systems highly useful for biomedical, healthcare, and sensing applications. However, these chips need redesigning for compatibility with microfluidic fabrication methods such as photolithography. To address this, we integrated microfluidics technology
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Synergistic binding ability of electrostatic tweezers and femtosecond laser-structured slippery surfaces enabling unusual droplet manipulation applications. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-30 Xinlei Li,Chaowei Wang,Zhenrui Chen,Cunyuan Chen,Suwan Zhu,Dong Wu,Jiale Yong
We propose a novel contactless droplet manipulation strategy that combines electrostatic tweezers (ESTs) with lubricated slippery surfaces. Electrostatic induction causes the droplet to experience an electrostatic force, allowing it to move with the horizontal shift of the EST. Because both the EST and the slippery operating platform prepared by a femtosecond laser exhibit a strong binding effect on
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Retina-on-chip: engineering functional in vitro models of the human retina using organ-on-chip technology. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-30 Tarek Gensheimer,Devin Veerman,Edwin M van Oosten,Loes Segerink,Alejandro Garanto,Andries D van der Meer
The retina is a complex and highly metabolic tissue in the back of the eye essential for human vision. Retinal diseases can lead to loss of vision in early and late stages of life, significantly affecting patients' quality of life. Due to its accessibility for surgical interventions and its isolated nature, the retina is an attractive target for novel genetic therapies and stem cell-based regenerative
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Geometry of obstructed pathway regulates upstream navigational pattern of sperm population. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-29 Ali Karimi,Mohammad Yaghoobi,Alireza Abbaspourrad
Sperm navigation through the complex microarchitecture of the fallopian tube is essential for successful fertilization. Spatiotemporal structural alteration due to folded epithelium or muscle contractions in the fallopian tube changes the geometry of the sperm pathways. The role of structural complexity in sperm navigational patterns has been investigated for single sperm cells but has not been fully
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Worth your sweat: wearable microfluidic flow rate sensors for meaningful sweat analytics. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-29 R F R Ursem,A Steijlen,M Parrilla,J Bastemeijer,A Bossche,K De Wael
Wearable microfluidic sweat sensors could play a major role in the future of monitoring health and wellbeing. Sweat contains biomarkers to monitor health and hydration status, and it can provide information on drug intake, making it an interesting non-invasive alternative to blood. However, sweat is not created in excess, and this requires smart sweat collection strategies to handle small volumes.
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Dynamic fluidic manipulation in microfluidic chips with dead-end channels through spinning: the Spinochip technology for hematocrit measurement, white blood cell counting and plasma separation. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Cemre Oksuz,Can Bicmen,H Cumhur Tekin
Centrifugation is crucial for size and density-based sample separation, but low-volume or delicate samples suffer from loss and impurity issues during repeated spins. We introduce the "Spinochip", a novel microfluidic system utilizing centrifugal forces for efficient filling of dead-end microfluidic channels. The Spinochip enables versatile fluid manipulation with a single reservoir for both inlet
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Microfluidics for morpholomics and spatial omics applications. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-27 Nishanth Venugopal Menon,Jeeyeon Lee,Tao Tang,Chwee Teck Lim
Creative designs, precise fluidic manipulation, and automation have supported the development of microfluidics for single-cell applications. Together with the advancements in detection technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), microfluidic-assisted platforms have been increasingly used for new modalities of single-cell investigations and in spatial omics applications. This review explores the
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Microfluidic vessel-on-chip platform for investigation of cellular defects in venous malformations and responses to various shear stress and flow conditions. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-23 Mohammadhassan Ansarizadeh,Hoang-Tuan Nguyen,Bojana Lazovic,Jere Kettunen,Laknee De Silva,Ragul Sivakumar,Pauliina Junttila,Siiri-Liisa Rissanen,Ryan Hicks,Prateek Singh,Lauri Eklund
A novel microfluidic platform was designed to study the cellular architecture of endothelial cells (ECs) in an environment replicating the 3D organization and flow of blood vessels. In particular, the platform was constructed to investigate EC defects in slow-flow venous malformations (VMs) under varying shear stress and flow conditions. The platform featured a standard microtiter plate footprint containing
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Point-of-need diagnostics in a post-Covid world: an opportunity for paper-based microfluidics to serve during syndemics. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-23 Maria-Nefeli Tsaloglou,Dionysios C Christodouleas,Jonathan Milette,Kendall Milkey,Isabelle C Romine,Judy Im,Shefali Lathwal,Duraipandian Thava Selvam,Hadley D Sikes,George M Whitesides
Zoonotic outbreaks present with unpredictable threats to human health, food production, biodiversity, national security and disrupt the global economy. The COVID-19 pandemic-caused by zoonotic coronavirus, SARS-CoV2- is the most recent upsurge of an increasing trend in outbreaks for the past 100 years. This year, emergence of avian influenza (H5N1) is a stark reminder of the need for national and international
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Exploring microfluidics-based organoid interactions through analysis of albumin secretion. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-22 Yang Yang,Yueyang Qu,Jing Wang,Yuxiu Wang,Jiamin Zhao,Miaomiao Wang,Wanqing Hu,Jiaqi Zhao,Bingcheng Lin,Xiuli Zhang,Yong Luo
Organoids-on-a-chip exhibit significant potential for advancing disease modeling, drug screening, and precision medicine, largely due to their capacity to facilitate interactions among organoids. However, the influence of chip design on these interactions remains poorly understood, primarily due to our limited knowledge of the mediators of communication and the complexity of interaction dynamics. This
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A single droplet dispensing system for high-throughput screening and reliable recovery of rare events. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-21 Marian Weiss,Sadat Hasan,Robert Genth,Mohammad Mollah,Elea Robert,Alejandro Gil,Lars Hufnagel
Microfluidic droplet sorting has emerged as a powerful technique for a broad spectrum of biomedical applications ranging from single cell analysis to high-throughput drug screening, biomarker detection and tissue engineering. However, the controlled and reliable retrieval of selected droplets for further off-chip analysis and processing is a significant challenge in droplet sorting, particularly in
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Development and evaluation of a microfluidic human testicular tissue chip: a novel in vitro platform for reproductive biology and pharmacology studies. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-17 Jiaming Shen,Xinlong Wang,Chenghua Yang,Guanyu Ren,Lei Wang,Shuguang Piao,Boyang Zhang,Weihao Sun,Xie Ge,Jun Jing,Yijian Xiang,Zhaowanyue He,Linhui Wang,Bing Yao,Zhiyong Liu
Organ-on-a-chip culture systems using human organ tissues provide invaluable preclinical insights into systemic functions in vitro. This study aimed to develop a novel human testicular tissue chip within a microfluidic device employing computer-aided design software and photolithography technology. Polydimethylsiloxane was used as the primary material to ensure marked gas permeability and no biotoxicity
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The reversible capillary field effect transistor: a capillaric element for autonomous flow switching. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-17 Daniel Mak,Claude Meffan,Julian Menges,Rhys Marchant-Ludlow,Azadeh Hashemi,Ciaran P Moore,Renwick C J Dobson,Volker Nock
New flow control elements in capillaric circuits are key to achieving ever more complex lab-on-a-chip functionality while maintaining their autonomous and easy-to-use nature. Capillary field effect transistors valves allow for flow in channels to be restricted and cut off utilising a high pressure triggering channel and occluding air bubble. The reversible capillary field effect transistor presented
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An all-in-one microfluidic cryopreservation system and protocols with gradually increasing CPA concentration. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-16 Tianhang Yang,Xinbei Lv,Yuqiao Bai,Huabin Jiang,Xiaoran Chang,Jinxian Wang,Gangyin Luo
In regular biosample cryopreservation operations, dropwise pipetting and continuous swirling are ordinarily needed to prevent cell damage (e.g. sudden osmotic change, toxicity and dissolution heat) caused by the high-concentration cryoprotectant (CPA) addition process. The following CPA removal process after freezing and rewarming also requires multiple sample transfer processes and manual work. In
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A universal framework for design and manufacture of deterministic lateral displacement chips. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-14 Aryan Mehboudi,Shrawan Singhal,S V Sreenivasan
Despite being a high-resolution separation technique, deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) technology is facing multiple challenges with regard to design, manufacture, and operation of pertinent devices. This work specifically aims at alleviating difficulties associated with design and manufacture of DLD chips. The process of design and production of computer-aided design (CAD) mask layout files
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An integrated paper-based microfluidic platform for screening of early-stage Alzheimer's disease by detecting Aβ42. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-13 Sixuan Duan,Tianyu Cai,Lizhe Chen,Xiaoyan Wang,Shuailong Zhang,Bing Han,Eng Gee Lim,Kai Hoettges,Yong Hu,Pengfei Song
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide, and the development of early screening methods can address its significant health and social consequences. In this paper, we present a rotary-valve assisted paper-based immunoassay device (RAPID) for early screening of AD, featuring a highly integrated on-chip rotary micro-valve that enables fully automated and efficient detection
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Selective adsorption of unmethylated DNA on ZnO nanowires for separation of methylated DNA. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-10 Marina Musa,Zetao Zhu,Hiromi Takahashi,Wataru Shinoda,Yoshinobu Baba,Takao Yasui
DNA methylation is a crucial epigenetic modification used as a biomarker for early cancer progression. However, existing methods for DNA methylation analysis are complex, time-consuming, and prone to DNA degradation. This work demonstrates selective capture of unmethylated DNAs using ZnO nanowires without chemical or biological modifications, thereby concentrating methylated DNA, particularly those
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Time-resolved single-cell secretion analysis via microfluidics. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-10 Ying Xu,Mei Tsz Jewel Chan,Ming Yang,Heixu Meng,Chia-Hung Chen
Revealing how individual cells alter their secretions over time is crucial for understanding their responses to environmental changes. Key questions include: When do cells modify their functions and states? What transitions occur? Insights into the kinetic secretion trajectories of various cell types are essential for unraveling complex biological systems. This review highlights seven microfluidic
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A fluidic device for continuous on-line inductive sensing of proteolytic cleavages. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-09 Fan Li,Leif Sieben,Johannes Büchler,Manuel Strahm,Pascal Poc,Matej Vizovišek,Michael G Christiansen,Simone Schuerle
Proteases, an important class of enzymes that cleave proteins and peptides, carry a wealth of potentially useful information. Devices to enable routine and cost effective measurement of their activity could find frequent use in clinical settings for medical diagnostics, as well as some industrial contexts such as detecting on-line biological contamination. In particular, devices that make use of readouts
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Recent advances in centrifugal microfluidics for point-of-care testing. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Huijuan Yuan,Zeyu Miao,Chao Wan,Jingjing Wang,Jinzhi Liu,Yiwei Li,Yujin Xiao,Peng Chen,Bi-Feng Liu
Point-of-care testing (POCT) holds significant importance in the field of infectious disease prevention and control, as well as personalized precision medicine. The emerging microfluidics, capable of minimal reagent consumption, integration, and a high degree of automation, play a pivotal role in POCT. Centrifugal microfluidics, also termed lab-on-a-disc (LOAD), is a significant subfield of microfluidics
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Microsensor systems for cell metabolism - from 2D culture to organ-on-chip (2019-2024). Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Johannes Dornhof,Jochen Kieninger,Stefan J Rupitsch,Andreas Weltin
Cell cultures, organs-on-chip and microphysiological systems become increasingly relevant as in vitro models, e.g., in drug development, disease modelling, toxicology or cancer research. It has been underlined repeatedly that culture conditions and metabolic cues have a strong or even essential influence on the reproducibility and validity of such experiments but are often not appropriately measured
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Amplification-free CRISPR/Cas based dual-enzymatic colorimetric nucleic acid biosensing device. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Guodong Tong,Pabitra Nath,Yuki Hiruta,Daniel Citterio
Nucleic acid testing (NAT) is widely considered the gold standard in analytical fields, with applications spanning environmental monitoring, forensic science and clinical diagnostics, among others. However, its widespread use is often constrained by complicated assay procedures, the need for specialized equipment, and the complexity of reagent handling. In this study, we demonstrate a fully integrated
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Micro- and milli-fluidic sample environments for in situ X-ray analysis in the chemical and materials sciences. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Mark A Levenstein,Corinne Chevallard,Florent Malloggi,Fabienne Testard,Olivier Taché
X-ray-based methods are powerful tools for structural and chemical studies of materials and processes, particularly for performing time-resolved measurements. In this critical review, we highlight progress in the development of X-ray compatible microfluidic and millifluidic platforms that enable high temporal and spatial resolution X-ray analysis across the chemical and materials sciences. With a focus
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Sample-to-answer microfluidic device towards the point-of-need detection of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin genes in ruminant milk. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Maha Shalaby,Valentina Busin,Xiaoxiang Yan,Seyda Cengiz,Mehmet Cemal Adiguzel,Jonathan M Cooper,Taya Forde,Julien Reboud
Milk is commonly screened both for indicators of animal disease and health, but also for foodborne hazards. Included in these analyses is the detection of Staphylococcus aureus, that can produce an enterotoxin, causing staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP), which often leads to sudden onset of significant gastrointestinal symptoms in humans. Epidemiological data on SFP are limited, particularly in low-
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Challenges in blood fractionation for cancer liquid biopsy: how can microfluidics assist? Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Robert Salomon,Sajad Razavi Bazaz,Kirk Mutafopulos,David Gallego-Ortega,Majid Warkiani,David Weitz,Dayong Jin
Liquid biopsy provides a minimally invasive approach to characterise the molecular and phenotypic characteristics of a patient's individual tumour by detecting evidence of cancerous change in readily available body fluids, usually the blood. When applied at multiple points during the disease journey, it can be used to monitor a patient's response to treatment and to personalise clinical management
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Droplet microfluidics: unveiling the hidden complexity of the human microbiome. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Yibin Xu,Zhiyi Wang,Caiming Li,Shuiquan Tian,Wenbin Du
The human body harbors diverse microbial communities essential for maintaining health and influencing disease processes. Droplet microfluidics, a precise and high-throughput platform for manipulating microscale droplets, has become vital in advancing microbiome research. This review introduces the foundational principles of droplet microfluidics, its operational capabilities, and wide-ranging applications
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Demystifying EV heterogeneity: emerging microfluidic technologies for isolation and multiplexed profiling of extracellular vesicles. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Guihua Zhang,Xiaodan Huang,Sinong Liu,Yiling Xu,Nan Wang,Chaoyong Yang,Zhi Zhu
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous lipid containers carrying complex molecular cargoes, including proteins, nucleic acids, glycans, etc. These vesicles are closely associated with specific physiological characteristics, which makes them invaluable in the detection and monitoring of various diseases. However, traditional isolation methods are often labour-intensive, inefficient, and time-consuming
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Repackable microfluidic molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction coupled with mass spectrometry (μMISPE-MS) for rapid analysis of mycotoxin in agri-foods: an example of zearalenone. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Marti Z Hua,Jinxin Liu,Tianqi Li,David R McMullin,Yaxi Hu,Xiaonan Lu
Mycotoxins are detectable in 60-80% of food crops, posing significant threats to human health and food security, and causing substantial economic losses. Most mitigation approaches focus on detecting mycotoxins with standard methods based on liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Typical MS methods require extensive sample preparation and clean-up due to the matrix effect, followed
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Advances in microfluidic platforms for tumor cell phenotyping: from bench to bedside. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Rutwik Joshi,Hesaneh Ahmadi,Karl Gardner,Robert K Bright,Wenwen Wang,Wei Li
Heterogeneities among tumor cells significantly contribute towards cancer progression and therapeutic inefficiency. Hence, understanding the nature of cancer through liquid biopsies and isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has gained considerable interest over the years. Microfluidics has emerged as one of the most popular platforms for performing liquid biopsy applications. Various label-free
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Aptamer selection via versatile microfluidic platforms and their diverse applications. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Yi-Da Chung,Yi-Cheng Tsai,Chi-Hung Wang,Gwo-Bin Lee
Aptamers are synthetic oligonucleotides that bind with high affinity and specificity to various targets, making them invaluable for diagnostics, therapeutics, and biosensing. Microfluidic platforms can improve the efficiency and scalability of aptamer selection, especially through advancements in systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) methods. Microfluidic SELEX methods are
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Synergizing microfluidics and plasmonics: advances, applications, and future directions. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 C Escobedo,A G Brolo
In the past decade, interest in nanoplasmonic structures has experienced significant growth, owing to rapid advancements in materials science and the evolution of novel nanofabrication techniques. The activities in the area are not only leading to remarkable progress in specific applications in photonics, but also permeating to and synergizing with other fields. This review delves into the symbiosis
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Droplets in open microfluidics: generation, manipulation, and application in cell analysis. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-08 Jiaxu Lin,Ying Hou,Qiang Zhang,Jin-Ming Lin
Open droplet microfluidics is an emerging technology that generates, manipulates, and analyzes droplets in open configuration systems. Droplets function as miniaturized reactors for high-throughput analysis due to their compartmentalization and parallelization, while openness enables addressing and accessing the targeted contents. The convergence of two technologies facilitates the localization and
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Injury-on-a-chip for modelling microvascular trauma-induced coagulation. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Halston Deal,Elizabeth M Byrnes,Sanika Pandit,Anastasia Sheridan,Ashley C Brown,Michael Daniele
Blood coagulation is a highly regulated injury response that features polymerization of fibrin fibers to prevent the passage of blood from a damaged vascular endothelium. A growing body of research seeks to monitor coagulation in microfluidic systems but fails to capture coagulation as a response to disruption of the vascular endothelium. Here we present a device that allows compression injury of a
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Integrating microfluidic and bioprinting technologies: advanced strategies for tissue vascularization. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-07 Xuan Mei,Ziyi Yang,Xiran Wang,Alan Shi,Joel Blanchard,Fanny Elahi,Heemin Kang,Gorka Orive,Yu Shrike Zhang
Tissue engineering offers immense potential for addressing the unmet needs in repairing tissue damage and organ failure. Vascularization, the development of intricate blood vessel networks, is crucial for the survival and functions of engineered tissues. Nevertheless, the persistent challenge of ensuring an ample nutrient supply within implanted tissues remains, primarily due to the inadequate formation
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A simple three-dimensional microfluidic platform for studying chemotaxis and cell sorting. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Xiaobo Li,Yanqing Song,Andrew Glidle,Cindy Smith,William Sloan,Maggie Cusack,Huabing Yin
Microbial chemotaxis plays a key role in a diversity of biological and ecological processes. Although microfluidics-based assays have been applied to investigate bacterial chemotaxis, retrieving chemotactic cells off-chip based on their dynamic chemotactic responses remains limited. Here, we present a simple three-dimensional microfluidic platform capable of programmable delivery of solutions, maintaining
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A 3D millifluidic model of a dermal perivascular microenvironment on a chip. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Chiara Martinelli,Alberto Bocconi,Sofia Milone,Teresa Baldissera,Leonardo Cherubin,Giovanni Buccioli,Simone Perottoni,Claudio Conci,Giulio Cerullo,Roberto Osellame,Giuseppe Chirico,Emanuela Jacchetti,Manuela Teresa Raimondi
The process of angiogenesis plays a pivotal role in skin regeneration, ensuring the provision of nutrients and oxygen to the nascent tissue, thanks to the formation of novel microvascular networks supporting functional tissue regeneration. Unfortunately, most of the current therapeutic approaches for skin regeneration lack vascularization, required to promote effective angiogenesis. Thus, in vitro
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Engineering the acoustic field with a Mie scatterer for microparticle patterning. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Xingyu Jiang,Yunpeng Zhao,Minjie Shen,Xiao Zhou,Bin Chen,Bruce W Drinkwater,Liangfei Tian
The utilization of acoustic fields offers a contactless approach for microparticle manipulation in a miniaturized system, and plays a significant role in medicine, biology, chemistry, and engineering. Due to the acoustic radiation force arising from the scattering of the acoustic waves, small particles in the Rayleigh scattering range can be trapped, whilst their impact on the acoustic field is negligible
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An electrochemical sensor integrated lab-on-a-CD system for phenylketonuria diagnostics. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-06 Ipek Akyilmaz,Dilan Celebi-Birand,Naim Yagiz Demir,Deniz Bas,Caglar Elbuken,Memed Duman
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is characterized by an autosomal recessive mutation in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene. Impaired PAH enzyme activity leads to the accumulation of phenylalanine (Phe) and its metabolites in the bloodstream, which disrupts the central nervous system and causes psychomotor retardation. Early diagnosis of PKU is essential for timely intervention. Moreover, continuous monitoring
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Stretchable impedance electrode array with high durability for monitoring of cells under mechanical and chemical stimulations. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 A Ri Kim,Seok Ju Hong,Han-Byeol Lee,Nae-Eung Lee
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) serves as a non-invasive technique for assessing cell status, while mechanical stretching plays a pivotal role in stimulating cells to emulate their natural environment. Integrating these two domains enables the concurrent application of mechanical stimulation and EIS in a stretchable cell culture system. However, challenges arise from the difficulty in
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A fully integrated microfluidic cartridge for rapid and ultrasensitive nucleic acid detection from oropharyngeal swabs. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Bao Li,Baobao Lin,Wu Zeng,Yin Gu,Yulan Zhao,Peng Liu
Rapid and accurate molecular diagnostics are crucial for preventing the global spread of emerging infectious diseases. However, the current gold standard for nucleic acid detection, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), relies heavily on traditional magnetic beads or silica membranes for nucleic acid extraction, resulting in several limitations, including time-consuming processes
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A FET-based flexible biosensor system for dynamic behavior observation of lipid membrane with nanoparticles in vitro. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Keyi Zhu,Hanjing Lu,Qiannan Xue,Feng Zhou,Wenlan Guo,Chen Sun,Xuexin Duan
Nanoparticles have become widely used materials in various fields, yet their mechanism of action at the cellular level after entering the human body remains unclear. Accurately observing the effect of nanosize dimensions on particle internalization and toxicity in cells is crucial, particularly under the conditions of biological activity. With the aim of helping to study the interactions between nanoparticles
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High-throughput, combinatorial droplet generation by sequential spraying. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-02 Rena Fukuda,Nate J Cira
Advancements in bulk and microfluidic emulsion methodologies have enabled highly efficient, high-throughput implementations of biochemical assays. Spray-based techniques offer rapid generation, droplet immobilization, and accessibility, but remain relatively underutilized, likely because they result in random and polydisperse droplets. However, the polydisperse characteristic can be leveraged; at sufficiently
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A vascularized microfluidic model of the osteochondral unit for modeling inflammatory response and therapeutic screening. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Kevin D Roehm,Irene Chiesa,Dustin Haithcock,Riccardo Gottardi,Balabhaskar Prabhakarpandian
Osteoarthritis (OA) has long been considered a disease of the articular cartilage. Within the past decade it has become increasingly clear that OA is a disease of the entire joint space and that interactions between articular cartilage and subchondral bone likely play an important role in the disease. Driven by this knowledge, we have created a novel microphysiological model of the osteochondral unit
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Liquid metal electrodes enabled cascaded on-chip dielectrophoretic separation of large-size-range particles. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Huichao Chai,Liang Huang,Junwen Zhu,Jialu Tian,Wenhui Wang
The separation of large-size-range particles of complex biological samples is critical but yet well resolved. As a label-free technique, dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based particle separation faces the challenge of how to configure DEP in an integrated microfluidic device to bring particles of various sizes into the effective DEP force field. Herein, we propose a concept that combines the passive flow fraction
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An intimal-lumen model in a microfluidic device: potential platform for atherosclerosis-related studies. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-28 Fahima Akther,Dimple Sajin,Shehzahdi S Moonshi,Jessica Pickett,Yuao Wu,Jun Zhang,Nam-Trung Nguyen,Hang Thu Ta
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory vascular disorder driven by factors such as endothelial dysfunction, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and arterial calcification, and is considered a leading global cause of death. Existing atherosclerosis models have limitations due to the absence of an appropriate hemodynamic microenvironment in vitro and interspecies differences in vivo. Here, we develop a
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High-throughput microfluidic spheroid technology for early detection of colistin-induced nephrotoxicity with gradient-based analysis. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-14 Yugyeong Lee,Yunsang Choi,Ju Lan Chun,Hong Bin Kim,Sejoong Kim,Eu Suk Kim,Sungsu Park
Colistin is essential for treating multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections but has significant nephrotoxic side effects. Traditional approaches for studying colistin's nephrotoxicity are challenged by the rapid metabolism of its prodrug, colistin methanesulfonate and the difficulty of obtaining adequate plasma from critically ill patients. To address these challenges, we developed the
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3D-printed acoustic metasurface with encapsulated micro-air-bubbles for frequency-selective manipulation. Lab Chip (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2025-01-14 Miaomiao Ji,Yukai Liu,Zheng Zhang,Rui Xu,Fanyun Pan,Ya Zhang,Rouyu Su,Minghui Lu,Xiujuan Zhang,Guanghui Wang
Acoustic waves provide an effective method for object manipulation in microfluidics, often requiring high-frequency ultrasound in the megahertz range when directly handling microsized objects, which can be costly. Micro-air-bubbles in water offer a solution toward low-cost technologies using low-frequency acoustic waves. Owing to their high compressibility and low elastic modulus, these bubbles can