Micronics: Fluid transition

Although certain basic research techniques, including DNA analysis and PCR, may be performed on microfluidic chips, this miniaturized platform has not yet been broadly extended to the field of immunoassays. Thus, publication of the quantitative measurement of nanomolar concentrations of a small molecule may represent the segue of microfluidics into another research area, and offer an improvement over existing ELISA techniques in terms of speed and required reagents.

As published in Nature Biotechnology, Micronics Inc. and colleagues used a microfluidic T-sensor to measure the concentration of phenytoin, an anti-epileptic drug, in blood samples. The T-sensor places two fluid streams in contact, one with antibody, the other with antigen, and allows for the fluid components to diffuse (see B14). ...