High-sensitivity detectors for microfluidic systems

Rapidly evolving frontiers in genomics, proteomics and medical diagnostics generate an ever increasing demand for high throughput analytical information. The ability to extract the required information from a chemical or biological system almost always involves performing a number of distinct analytical operations. Ideal microfluidic systems will incorporate all such relevant steps including sample handling, sample pre-treatment, reaction, product separation, analyte detection, and product isolation. While downsizing, system integration and parallelisation afford many performance gains including speed, analytical efficiency and throughput, new problems are also encountered. A significant challenge arising directly from the existence of small volumes within microfluidic systems is the ability to efficiently detect analyte molecules. The author´s presentation discusses this important challenge and present examples of high-sensitivity, universal and integrated detection schemes for chip-based systems.