Microfluidic Chips for Life Science and Health Care Applications

A special issue of Biosensors (ISSN 2079-6374). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensor and Bioelectronic Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 3914

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China
2. School of Microelectronics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 201800, China
Interests: single molecule; photonics; plasmonics; IVD devices; nanopore; nanowire; biophysics; biosensor

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Guest Editor
Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China
Interests: microfluidics; micro-/nanofabrication; smart materials; surface modification; biomimetic sensors and systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Surgery, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Gastric Neoplasms, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Surgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 201199, China
2. School of Microelectronics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 201800, China
Interests: microfluidics; organ chips; drug screening

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Guest Editor
Shanghai Industrial μTechnology Research Institute (SITRI), Shanghai 201800, China
Interests: microfluidics; micro- and nano-fabrication; POCT; biochemistry; gene sequencing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite their initial application in electrical circuits, silicon-chip-based technologies, including silicon-based structures and silicon-based materials, have also been widely used as tools for research in life science and health care applications. In recent years, silicon chips have been widely used for both scientific research and clinical applications for the detection and characterization of biological substances.

The unique chemical characteristics and advanced fabrication technologies have made silicon a highly versatile material and realized highly efficient bio-sensing structures. Highly complex structures can be made on silicon chips thanks to the advancement of silicon technologies including etching, doping, film deposition, and surface chemistry. Silicon technology is used for detecting, sensing, and manipulating biological substances at a molecular, subcellular, cellular, tissue, and organ level. Silicon-based sensors can be used to detect and transduce chemical, electrical, and photonic signals in various applications, both in vitro and in vivo. The straightforward surface chemistry allows tethering of various molecules, including enzymes and antibodies, to the silicon surface for bio-sensing. However, silicon has its own drawbacks. For example, silicon is more expensive compared to polymers. In addition, the mechanical stiffness of silicon limits the application of direct implanting silicon chips to organisms. The area of silicon-based bio-sensing is still rapidly growing.

In this Special Issue, we welcome all contributions in this area using silicon-chip-based technology for life science and health care applications. We aim to gather original papers, reviews, and perspectives regarding recent advances in structural design, silicon fabrication technologies, surface modification, and novel applications in life science and health care applications, such as point-of-care diagnostics, biomolecule detection, single-molecule analysis, sequencing, imaging, cell manipulation, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.

You are invited to participate in this project. If you would be interested in submitting a contribution, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Prof. Dr. Chang Chen
Dr. Kaihuan Zhang
Prof. Dr. Qing Chang
Dr. Ruihua Ding
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biosensors is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • multi-electrode silicon chip
  • field effect transistors
  • lab on chip
  • surface chemistry for silicon
  • silicon photonics
  • bio-imaging on chip
  • trace detection
  • gene sequencing
  • cell culture and sorting

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3149 KiB  
Article
A Novel DNA Synthesis Platform Design with High-Throughput Paralleled Addressability and High-Density Static Droplet Confinement
by Shijia Yang, Dayin Wang, Zequan Zhao, Ning Wang, Meng Yu, Kaihuan Zhang, Yuan Luo and Jianlong Zhao
Biosensors 2024, 14(4), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14040177 - 06 Apr 2024
Viewed by 481
Abstract
Using DNA as the next-generation medium for data storage offers unparalleled advantages in terms of data density, storage duration, and power consumption as compared to existing data storage technologies. To meet the high-speed data writing requirements in DNA data storage, this paper proposes [...] Read more.
Using DNA as the next-generation medium for data storage offers unparalleled advantages in terms of data density, storage duration, and power consumption as compared to existing data storage technologies. To meet the high-speed data writing requirements in DNA data storage, this paper proposes a novel design for an ultra-high-density and high-throughput DNA synthesis platform. The presented design mainly leverages two functional modules: a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)-like integrated circuit (IC) responsible for electrode addressing and voltage supply, and the static droplet array (SDA)-based microfluidic structure to eliminate any reaction species diffusion concern in electrochemical DNA synthesis. Through theoretical analysis and simulation studies, we validate the effective addressing of 10 million electrodes and stable, adjustable voltage supply by the integrated circuit. We also demonstrate a reaction unit size down to 3.16 × 3.16 μm2, equivalent to 10 million/cm2, that can rapidly and stably generate static droplets at each site, effectively constraining proton diffusion. Finally, we conducted a synthesis cycle experiment by incorporating fluorescent beacons on a microfabricated electrode array to examine the feasibility of our design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Chips for Life Science and Health Care Applications)
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12 pages, 5990 KiB  
Article
Photocell-Based Optofluidic Device for Clogging-Free Cell Transit Time Measurements
by Filippo Storti, Silvio Bonfadini, Gaia Bondelli, Vito Vurro, Guglielmo Lanzani and Luigino Criante
Biosensors 2024, 14(4), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14040154 - 24 Mar 2024
Viewed by 610
Abstract
Measuring the transit time of a cell forced through a bottleneck is one of the most widely used techniques for the study of cell deformability in flow. It in turn provides an accessible and rapid way of obtaining crucial information regarding cell physiology. [...] Read more.
Measuring the transit time of a cell forced through a bottleneck is one of the most widely used techniques for the study of cell deformability in flow. It in turn provides an accessible and rapid way of obtaining crucial information regarding cell physiology. Many techniques are currently being investigated to reliably retrieve this time, but their translation to diagnostic-oriented devices is often hampered by their complexity, lack of robustness, and the bulky external equipment required. Herein, we demonstrate the benefits of coupling microfluidics with an optical method, like photocells, to measure the transit time. We exploit the femtosecond laser irradiation followed by chemical etching (FLICE) fabrication technique to build a monolithic 3D device capable of detecting cells flowing through a 3D non-deformable constriction which is fully buried in a fused silica substrate. We validated our chip by measuring the transit times of pristine breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and MCF-7 cells treated with Latrunculin A, a drug typically used to increase their deformability. A difference in transit times can be assessed without the need for complex external instrumentation and/or demanding computational efforts. The high throughput (4000–10,000 cells/min), ease of use, and clogging-free operation of our device bring this approach much closer to real scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Chips for Life Science and Health Care Applications)
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14 pages, 6321 KiB  
Article
Complete Prevention of Bubbles in a PDMS-Based Digital PCR Chip with a Multifunction Cavity
by Shiyuan Gao, Tiegang Xu, Lei Wu, Xiaoyue Zhu, Xuefeng Wang, Ying Chen, Gang Li and Xinxin Li
Biosensors 2024, 14(3), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14030114 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1125
Abstract
In a chamber-based digital PCR (dPCR) chip fabricated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), bubble generation in the chambers at high temperatures is a critical issue. Here, we found that the main reason for bubble formation in PDMS chips is the too-high saturated vapor pressure of [...] Read more.
In a chamber-based digital PCR (dPCR) chip fabricated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), bubble generation in the chambers at high temperatures is a critical issue. Here, we found that the main reason for bubble formation in PDMS chips is the too-high saturated vapor pressure of water at an elevated temperature. The bubbles should be completely prevented by reducing the initial pressure of the system to under 13.6 kPa to eliminate the effects of increased-pressure water vapor. Then, a cavity was designed and fabricated above the PCR reaction layer, and Parylene C was used as a shell covering the chip. The cavity was used for the negative generator in sample loading, PDMS degassing, PCR solution degassing in the digitization process and water storage in the thermal reaction process. The analysis was confirmed and finally achieved a desirable bubble-free, fast-digitization, valve-free and no-tubing connection dPCR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Chips for Life Science and Health Care Applications)
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14 pages, 3970 KiB  
Article
A Silicon-Based Field-Effect Biosensor for Drug-Induced Cardiac Extracellular Calcium Ion Change Detection
by Yong Qiu, Chiyu Ma, Nan Jiang, Deming Jiang, Zhengyin Yu, Xin Liu, Yuxuan Zhu, Weijie Yu, Fengheng Li, Hao Wan and Ping Wang
Biosensors 2024, 14(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14010016 - 28 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1192
Abstract
Calcium ions participate in the regulation of almost all biological functions of the body, especially in cardiac excitation–contraction coupling, acting as vital signaling through ion channels. Various cardiovascular drugs exert their effects via affecting the ion channels on the cell membrane. The current [...] Read more.
Calcium ions participate in the regulation of almost all biological functions of the body, especially in cardiac excitation–contraction coupling, acting as vital signaling through ion channels. Various cardiovascular drugs exert their effects via affecting the ion channels on the cell membrane. The current strategies for calcium ion monitoring are mainly based on fluorescent probes, which are commonly used for intracellular calcium ion detection (calcium imaging) and cannot achieve long-term monitoring. In this work, an all-solid-state silicone–rubber ion-sensitive membrane was fabricated on light-addressable potentiometric sensors to establish a program-controlled field-effect-based ion-sensitive light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) platform for extracellular calcium ion detection. L-type calcium channels blocker verapamil and calcium channel agonist BayK8644 were chosen to explore the effect of ion channel drugs on extracellular calcium ion concentration in HL-1 cell lines. Simultaneously, microelectrode array (MEA) chips were employed to probe the HL-1 extracellular field potential (EFP) signals. The Ca2+ concentration and EFP parameters were studied to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy of cardiovascular drugs. This platform provides more dimensional information on cardiovascular drug efficacy that can be utilized for accurate drug screening. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Chips for Life Science and Health Care Applications)
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