Lab-on-a-chip – The advent of instantaneous diagnosis for a plethora of diseases

Abstract

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that facilitates the incorporation of a concatenation of various laboratory functions on a unique integrated circuit. The size of this instrument is merely a few millimeters to centimeters designed to attain automation and high-throughput screening. Microfluidic systems used in LOC devices allow the manufacture of millions of microchannels, each measuring mere micrometers. These microchannels enable control of fluids in infinitesimal quantities for a variety of diagnoses. Several labs on a chip have been commercialized in recent times for fundamental procedures, including glucose monitoring, human immunodeficiency virus, early tumor detection, and cardiac diagnostics. The LOC integrates microfluidics, nanosensors, micro-electrics, and biochemistry on one device. The advantages of the chip include its sustainability and cutback wastage. It expedites a decline in reagent costs and requires minimal sample volumes. The analysis and response are faster and the response is better controlled by equipping micro-channels. Countries with exiguous healthcare are in the face of adversity due to increased fatality rates from infectious diseases that are often curable in developed nations. In certain circumstances, impoverished healthcare clinics have the medications requisite to treat a specific condition but are in dearth of the diagnostic equipment needed to determine, in which individuals are in need of the medications. This is where the role of LOC as a potent novel diagnostic instrument would benefit humankind in the nearest future, according to eminent researchers. This article highlights the applications of LOC in a miscellany of fields, its advantages, feasible means to overcome the drawbacks, and the propitious prospects of this technology.