Sensor integrated microfluidics for compact micro-reactors

Novel approaches in cell based and cell free micro reactors promise a new generation of high quality, high purity and on top personalized synthesis of drugs like antibiotics and functional proteins. These concepts are - however-relying on very specific conditions, under which the cells need to work and therefore require advanced sensing for e.g. ionic content, pH value and temperature. Also, the creation of product itself needs to be monitored to extract the valuable drug from the reactor, before side reactions start to deteriorate quality and yield. Microfluidics has come a long way since, resulting in advanced Point of Care devices nowadays, which can run complex protocols/1/. However, these reactions are time based and the process conditions are fixed and not monitored at all. To leverage the capability to drug production, monitoring sensors need to be integrated into the fluidic system, creating a complex electronic-optical microfluidic device. Exemplary techniques for the integration of sensors are provided in this paper, technological approaches and experimental results are given.