Disposable smart microfluidic-based biochips for clinical diagnostics

An innovative, fully integrated, plastic microfluidic chip has been developed for the dual applications of a fully stand-alone biochip. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop a wrist watch-type analyzer using a disposable smart plastic chip cartridge, which possesses state-of-the-art, structurally programmable, reconfigurable and multiple analysis capabilities. The portable point care laboratory instrument is based on a low-cost disposable microfluidic biochip. Specifically, a wrist watch-type analyzer that will overcome the deficiencies of conventional automated instruments in terms of cost, mobility of the equipment, and turn-around time of the test report, which is very critical for emergency patient care such as monitoring of a warfighter´s medical condition. The wrist watch-type, point-care device will not only monitor the biochemical changes but also establish the individual patient´s baseline data or normal ranges which are much more sensitive than general population based normal ranges in determining the biochemical changes of an individual patient