Microsystems in the Clinic and Beyond
Innovations in micro- and nano-systems is impacting the delivery of healthcare solutions, especially in the diagnostics front but also by accelerating research in cancer, infectious diseases, and other ailments. We are seeing a rapid transition from development of components (valves, pumps, etc) to integrated systems designed for specific applications in biomedicine and in the clinic. This special issue includes 8 contributions highlighting applications of micro- and nanosystems in these arenas.
Point-of-care testing (POCT) is an area that has benefited has made tremendous advances over the years but it still hampered by issues in related to assay sensitivity and quantitative nature of measurements made. Two papers in this special issue sought to address these challenges. Parolo et al. (the Plaxco lab, UCSB) demonstrated a one-step electrochemical sensor for HIV detection based on DNA scaffolds and compared its analytical and clinical performance against ELISA and lateral flow assays. Another paper by Zhan et al. (the Bischof lab, U of Minnesota) showed that applying thermal contrast amplification helps increase sensitivity and quantitative nature of lateral flow assays, bridging the gap between POCT and benchtop ELISA.
Analysis of intact tissue in vitro has numerous applications ranging from toxicology to physiology and diagnostics. Cultivation of tissue slices or biopsies has historically been neglected by the developers of microfluidic culture systems. There is a strong recent interest in leveraging microfluidic technologies for analysis of intact tissue. This interest is reflected in a thorough review by Horowitz et al. Another article in this collection, by De Hoyos-Vega et al. (the Garcia-Cordero lab, Cinvestav, Mexico) describes a multiplexed microfluidic device for analysis of tissues with complex, nonplanar morphology. This theme is also represented by the work of Lovchik et al. (the Kaigala group, IBM Zurich) who apply a microfluidic probe for immunostaining of tissue slices.
Finally, the manipulation and analysis of cells is also important for clinical diagnostics and basic research. This special issue includes an excellent review by Jammes et al. (the Maerkl lab, EPFL) on the topic of microfluidic single cell technology applied to the field of immunology. Another excellent review paper is by Zhou et al. (the Papautsky lab, UIC) on the subject of cell manipulation in viscoelastic fluids in microchannels.
We hope that some of the technologies described in this special issue will gain acceptance in the clinic in not too distant future. We also hope that readers find this compilation of papers interesting and stimulating. Enjoy.
Sincerely,
Alexander Revzin and Jose Garcia-Cordero.
