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Software-programmable continuous-flow multi-purpose lab-on-a-chip

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Abstract

Current lab-on-a-chip (LoC) devices are assay-specific and are custom-built for each single experiment. Performing an experiment requires scientists or engineers to go through the time-consuming process of designing, fabricating, and testing a chip before conducting the actual experiment. This prolonged cycle can take months to complete, increasing effort and cost and reducing productivity. Similarly, minor modifications to an assay protocol re-incur the overheads of the design cycle. In this paper, we develop a multi-purpose, software-programmable Lab-on-a-Chip (SPLoC), where the user simply writes or downloads a program for each experiment. We describe the components necessary to realize the SPLoC, which include a high-level programming language, an abstract instruction set, a runtime and control system, and a microfluidic device. We describe two key features of our high-level language compiler, and describe a novel variable-volume variable-ratio mixer. Finally, we demonstrate our SPLoC on four diverse, real-world assays.

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Acknowledgments

This work is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Numbers CCF-0726821 and CCF-0726694. This work was also supported in part by the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF). Work at Microfluidic Innovations was supported by NSF Award IIP-1013625 and NIH grant 1R43EB012392-01. The authors would also like to thank the staff of the Birck Nanotechnology Center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microfluidic Innovations, West Lafayette, IN, 47906, USA

    Ahmed M. Amin

  2. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Ahmed M. Amin, Mithuna Thottethodi & T. N. Vijaykumar

  3. Birck Nanotechnology Center, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Raviraj Thakur & Steven T. Wereley

  4. Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Seth Madren & Stephen C. Jacobson

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Han-Sheng Chuang

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  1. Ahmed M. Amin
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  2. Raviraj Thakur
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  3. Seth Madren
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  4. Han-Sheng Chuang
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  5. Mithuna Thottethodi
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  6. T. N. Vijaykumar
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  7. Steven T. Wereley
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  8. Stephen C. Jacobson
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Correspondence to Ahmed M. Amin.

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Amin, A.M., Thakur, R., Madren, S. et al. Software-programmable continuous-flow multi-purpose lab-on-a-chip. Microfluid Nanofluid 15, 647–659 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1180-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-013-1180-2

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