Wearable Soft Microtube Sensors for Quantitative Home-Based Erectile Dysfunction Monitoring.

Quantifiable erectile dysfunction (ED) diagnosis involves the monitoring of rigidity and tumescence of the penile shaft during nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT). In this work, we introduce Erectile Dysfunction SENsor (EDSEN), a home-based wearable device for quantitative penile health monitoring based on stretchable microtubular sensing technology. Two types of sensors, the T- and R-sensors, are developed to effectively measure penile tumescence and rigidity, respectively.

Aptamer-based array electrodes for quantitative interferon-γ detection.

Present work describes the methylene blue tagged thiolated aptamer-modified gold micro-array based biosensor for specific detection of IFN-γ. The microchips with the microelectrode array were fabricated using standard silicon microfabrication technologies, and modified with methylene blue tagged aptamer using standard gold thiol chemistry. Electrodes were characterized and tested using Cyclic Voltammetric (CV) and Square Wave Voltammetry (SQW) measurements in a standard three-electrode format at room temperature.

An electrical biosensor for the detection of circulating tumor cells.

In this report, we demonstrate a semi-integrated electrical biosensor for the detection of rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood. The sample was first enriched through a combination of immunomagnetic isolation and size filtration. The integration of both methods provided a high enrichment performance with a recovery rate above 70%, even for very low numbers of cancer cells present in the original sample (10 spiked MCF7 cells in 0.

Lateral patch-clamping in a standard 1536-well microplate format.

Lateral patch-clamping has emerged as a chip-based platform for automation of the conventional patch-clamp technique, the 'gold' standard for studying cellular ion channels. The conventional technique, as it relies on skilled-maneuver of glass micropipettes to patch cells, is extremely delicate, low in throughput, and thus cannot be used for primary screening of compounds against ion channels. Direct integration of glass capillaries on silicon provides lateral junctions for automated trapping and patching of cells.

Label-free impedance detection of low levels of circulating endothelial progenitor cells for point-of-care diagnosis.

This paper presents a novel microfluidic system for rapid label-free detection of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) from small volumes of white blood cells samples, to obtain a bedside cardiovascular diagnostic solution. The system was built on a single 1 cm(2) microelectrode array silicon chip, integrated with negative dielectrophoresis for cell trapping, surface immunochemistry for selective cell capture, and fluidics for cell washing and impedance detection. The level of circulating EPC level in blood is a biomarker of clinical interest, linked to the assessment of risk factors in cardiovascular diseases which are a major global concern.

A self-contained fully-enclosed microfluidic cartridge for lab on a chip.

We describe a self-contained fully-enclosed cartridge for lab-on-a-chip applications where sample and reagents can be applied sequentially as is performed in a heterogeneous immunoassay, or nucleic acid extraction. Both the self-contained and fully-enclosed features of the cartridge are sought to ensure its safe use in the field by unskilled staff. Simplicity in cartridge design and operation is obtained via adopting a valveless concept whereby reagents are stored and used in the form of liquid plugs isolated by air spacers around a fluidic loop.

A disposable planar peristaltic pump for lab-on-a-chip.

We demonstrate a simple planar peristaltic pump fabricated in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) via soft lithography and suitable for microfluidic integration.

Microfluidic integration of substantially round glass capillaries for lateral patch clamping on chip.

High-throughput screening of drug candidates for channelopathies can greatly benefit from an automated patch-clamping assay. Automation of the patch clamping through microfluidics ideally requires on-chip integration of glass capillaries with substantially round cross section. Such round capillaries, if they can only be integrated to connect isolated reservoirs on a substrate surface, will lead to a "lateral" configuration which is simple yet powerful for the patch clamping.