Low Cost, Flexible, Microfluidic System
Product: Low Cost, Flexible, Microfluidic System
Development Stage: Prototype completed
Primary Inventor: Massood Atashbar PhD, Professor; Electrical & Computer Eng. Dept.
License Status: Available for licensing
Patent Status: US 61/876,820
Reference: 2013-005
Numerous biomarkers are now available for identification of complex and heterogenic diseases, such as cancers, along with biomarkers that are linked to different stages of disease progression. For screening and disease identification, the clinical laboratory requires rapid, sensitive, accurate measurement of biomarkers in blood samples.
Microfluidic devices are replacing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) using biomarker antibodies that have been the standard for clinical analysis of disease biomarkers because microfluidic devices require very small blood samples (nano-microliters) for analysis and detect dissolved or suspended analytes. Presently, microfluidic devices are created by traditional and expensive silicon-based manufacturing systems that utilize conventional lithography techniques requiring a clean room.
Technology Description
Dr. Atashbar has developed a Microfluidic System that utilizes an innovative method for fabricating a microfluidic device. The microfluidic device can be designed to carry out a number of desired functions, such as: cell separation, DNA sequencing, enzyme/substrate reactions, biosensors, and implanted drug delivery or metabolite analyses.
With this Microfluidic System, there are now fewer barriers for the design and manufacturing of a microfluidic device. A low cost master mold is formed by either using printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing methods or additive printing methods to create a microchannel mold. In this technology, the master mold is used to create a flexible polymeric base containing microchannels. A second, thin film substrate has electrodes printed on it that align with and interact with the microchannels to allow the application of electrical signals to the fluid in the microchannels, or to measure changes in a binding matrix for molecules of interest from the fluid. The average size of the microchannels are 500 micrometers (width) and 45 micrometers (height) allowing for many common microchannel designs for analyses using a small analyte volume.
Potential Benefits
• Flexible microchannel device that provides greater reliability/robustness.
• Low cost device manufacturing allowing the device to be disposable.
• Reduced amount of material and energy wasted during fabrication of the devices.
• Very low volumes of analyte are required for the using the microfluidic system.
• Instantaneous measurement of an analyte down to low picomolar concentrations.
CONTACT
D. Clark Bennett
(269) 387-8218
Director of Technology and Innovation Advancement