A Chip for Biological Testing and Health Screening

There have been some huge milestones in microfluidics lately that can make the diagnosis of disease an easy process. The device was developed by a large international team of doctors and other researchers based at the University of California at Berkley and two other universities in Dublin and Valparaiso in Chile. The chip is reported to be able to process samples of blood for disease without

using any type of external tubing or additional components.

The device is called SIMBAS, which stands for “Self powered Integrated Microfluidic Blood analysis system”, is an autonomous way to detect levels of certain blood components without the use of other machinery. This has been a dream for lab analysts for a long time but previous prototypes were never completely autonomous. With the addition of tubing or other setup components on previous chips, one lost the ability to do the job using a small chip that was self-automated. This new chip has no external connections at all, including no tubing or other equipment. It can be used at a point of care device, making diagnosis simple, easy and uncomplicated.

It can be used to detect an untold number of diseases throughout the world, including tuberculosis and HIV. The way it is made helps the chip to be manufactured at a very cheap rate and in high volumes. It can be used anywhere, including in developing countries where access to diagnostics has traditionally been limited and slow. It is a truly portable system that can be used by aid workers in developing countries or at the hospital bedside by physicians and other healthcare workers.

Researchers used microscale physics and its laws in order to create the chips and to design their functionality. Then they made sure the chips could be made cheaply and in high numbers. Their research took processes that normally took a while in a laboratory and sped them up so that answers could be returned in seconds or minutes. There are microfluidic channels within the chip that are no thicker than a human hair. When whole blood is dropped onto the chip the red cells and white cells fall through the trenches, separating cells from clear plasma. This is a process called the degas driven flow.

Air molecules are removed in degas driven flow by putting the device within a vacuum-sealed package. The seal is then broken and the device is brought up to atmospheric conditions. There is then a pressure difference that drives the flow of blood fluid into the chip. More than 99 percent of blood cells are captured in the trenches using the force of gravity alone. There is no need for extra power. It can take as little as a few microliters of fluid to get a result. In one test, biotic was detected at small concentrations within about ten minutes.