Polycapillary slides can serve as the basis for designing micro-laboratories on a chip intended for multiparameter studies. Processes of separating, concentrating, mixing of analyzed substances can be carried out in micron-sized channels.
In such reactors, differentiated chemical reactions accompanied by a photon signal are read out by an independent optical fiber and form a dataset relevant for the study of initial analytes.
Potential benefits of a lab-on-a-chip based on polycapillary slides
- small amounts of analytes and reagents (picoliters)
- high speed of analysis
- high reproducibility of results
- automated operation of the application instrument
- significantly lower cost of analysis for the end patient
- high laboratory mobility
Fields of application
- Laboratory diagnostics (multiparameter tests),
- Biosecurity – rapid analyses of water and air quality under field conditions
- Synthetic chemistry
- Forensic processing of biological markers
Glass polycapillary structures can be combined with different types of microfluidic chips to obtain an optimum functional design.
The most promising in terms of demand direction of lab-on-a-chip application are point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic devices which are easy-to-use, cost-effective devices for home use by the operator without any special knowledge. PoCs form part of the emerging standards for personalized medicine and in the future may become one of the most common diagnostic gadgets of mass consumption.