Abstract
Droplet-based microfluidic systems have been shown to be compatible with many chemical and biological reagents and capable of performing a variety of operations that can be rendered programmable and reconfigurable. This platform has dimensional scaling benefits that have enabled controlled and rapid mixing of fluids in the droplet reactors, resulting in decreased reaction times. This, coupled with the precise generation and repeatability of droplet operations, has made the droplet-based microfluidic system a potent high throughput platform for biomedical research and applications. In addition to being used as micro-reactors ranging from the nano- to femtoliter (10−15 liters) range; droplet-based systems have also been used to directly synthesize particles and encapsulate many biological entities for biomedicine and biotechnology applications. For this, in the following article we will focus on the various droplet operations, as well as the numerous applications of the system and its future in many advanced scientific fields. Due to advantages of droplet-based systems, this technology has the potential to offer solutions to today's biomedical engineering challenges for advanced diagnostics and therapeutics.
Highlights
The manipulation of uids in channels with dimensions of tens of micro-meters, “micro uidics” has emerged as a distinct new eld
The potential applications of micro uidics include a wide range from chemical synthesis and biological analysis to optics and information technology
Reagents can be signi cantly reduced from milliliters and microliters to nano-liters and femtoliters whereas hours of reaction time could be altered to mere seconds or even less
Summary
The manipulation of uids in channels with dimensions of tens of micro-meters, “micro uidics” has emerged as a distinct new eld. Since the beginning of micro uidics, there has been a steady increase in the interest and development of devices for uid ow at the microscale.[1,2] Micro uidics is a multidisciplinary technology and neither it is limited nor belonging to an individual eld. Clues for this originate from its applications in drug delivery, point of care diagnostic chips, organic synthesis[3] and micro reactors.[4,5,6] Typical laboratory operations can be performed in micro uidic systems with a fraction of the volume of reagents in signi cantly less time. Reagents can be signi cantly reduced from milliliters and microliters to nano-liters and femtoliters whereas hours of reaction time could be altered to mere seconds or even less
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