Abstract
Microfluidics-based lab-on-chip (LOC) systems are an active research area that is revolutionising high-throughput sequencing for the fast, sensitive and accurate detection of a variety of pathogens. LOCs also serve as portable diagnostic tools. The devices provide optimum control of nanolitre volumes of fluids and integrate various bioassay operations that allow the devices to rapidly sense pathogenic threat agents for environmental monitoring. LOC systems, such as microfluidic biochips, offer advantages compared to conventional identification procedures that are tedious, expensive and time consuming. This paper aims to provide a broad overview of the need for devices that are easy to operate, sensitive, fast, portable and sufficiently reliable to be used as complementary tools for the control of pathogenic agents that damage the environment.
Highlights
Advances in microfluidics for nanotechnology-based sensing methods have been met with serious challenges in the creation of diagnostic devices that allow for the simultaneous detection of several types of biotargets on a single platform for environmental monitoring
Other noteworthy dimensionless numbers in specific appliances include the Knudsen number (Kn), which signifies the ratio of the molecular mean free path with the characteristic system length scale; the capillary number (Ca), which represents the ratio between the viscous and surface tension forces; the Weissenberg number (Wi), which is the ratio between the relaxation time and the shear rate of polymers; and the Deborah number (De), which represents the ratio of the polymer relaxation time to the characteristic flow time
We have presented an overview of the research on microfluidics-based LOC systems for DNA-based biosensors
Summary
Advances in microfluidics for nanotechnology-based sensing methods have been met with serious challenges in the creation of diagnostic devices that allow for the simultaneous detection of several types of biotargets on a single platform for environmental monitoring. The October 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad-cow disease), Iraq’s acknowledgement following the Gulf War that it possessed loaded biological weapons, and many other threats and biological ―incidents‖ worldwide have increased global demand for the tools to rapidly identify causative agents and infected individuals before the agents spread beyond control [12] This need for detection necessitates the development of biodefense devices using a microfluidics approach to monitor and control food sources, water sources, and suspect powders, and to test for decontamination after the treatment of equipment, personnel, and key environments [13]. The use of inexpensive, transistor-based biosensors has recently transformed the medical research field [14]
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