Applications of micro fluidics for molecular diagnostics

Abstract

Diagnostic assays implemented in micro fluidic devices have developed rapidly over the past decade and are expected to become commonplace in the next few years. Hundreds of micro fluidics-based approaches towards clinical diagnostics and pathogen detection have been reported with a general theme of rapid and customizable assays that are potentially cost-effective. This chapter reviews micro fluidics in molecular diagnostics based on application areas with a concise review of micro fluidics in general. Basic principles of microfabrication are brie fly reviewed and the transition to polymer fabricated devices is discussed. Most current micro fluidic diagnostic devices are designed to target a single disease, such as a given cancer or a variety of pathogens, and there will likely be a large market for these focused devices; however, the future of molecular diagnostics lies in highly multiplexed micro fluidic devices that can screen for potentially hundreds of diseases simultaneously © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013.