Microfluidics for medical diagnostics and biosensors

This article reviews the recent development in microfluidics for medical diagnostics and integrations with biosensors. Diagnostic and sensing applications have been the focus of much of the development of themicro-Total-Analysis-Systems(MicroTAS), and have recently enjoyed further development in new fabrication technologies, integrations, and utilities in field- and medical-applications. The challenges for these applications have been to reduce cost, to meet the sensitivity requirements while providing through put and speed, and to expand the repertoire of applications. This review focuses mostly on new developments in the last 5- 10 years in materials development, chip architecture and integration, different sensing modes that can be used in conjunction with microfluidics, and new applications that have emerged or have been demonstrated; it also aims to point out where future research can be directed to in these areas. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.