Scientists develop coin-sized medical labs

Scientists are on the verge of developing a faster, more efficient and reliable ‘lab on a chip’ device, the size of a small coin. According to a new study in Lab on a Chip, this technology is facing issues like finding an efficient and reliable way to mix and move blood and other fluids through the chip’s tiny valves and pumps. Researchers at the University at Buffalo (UB) in the US developed a chip that uses two different types of force, which is, capillary and vacuum driven, to manipulate how fluids travel in micro- and nano-sized channels.

In these new devices, when blood is mixed with a reagent to produce a biological and/or chemical reaction, the pressure difference between the two fluids often causes them to flow backward instead of into the desired channel.

The new chip requires no sensors or external sources of power. This could be essential for those who are searching for inexpensively produced disposable lab on chip products.

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