Efficient enrichment of free target sequences in an integrated microfluidic device for point-of-care detection systems.

Nucleic acid biomarker detection has great importance in the diagnosis of disease, the monitoring of disease progression and the classification of patients according to treatment decision making. Nucleic acid biomarkers found in the blood of patients have generated a lot of interest due to the possibility of being detected non-invasively which makes them ideal for monitoring and screening tests and particularly amenable to point-of-care (POC) or self-testing. A major challenge to POC molecular diagnostics is the need to enrich the target to optimise detection.

Design and fabrication of a microfluidic system with embedded circular channels for rotary cell culture.

The development of functional blood vessels is today a fundamental pillar in the evaluation of new therapies and diagnostic agents. This article describes the manufacture and subsequent functionalization, by means of cell culture, of a microfluidic device with a circular section. Its purpose is to simulate a blood vessel in order to test new treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension.

: A Customized Electrospun Drug Delivery System Loaded with Irinotecan for Local and Sustained Chemotherapy Release in Pancreatic Cancer.

Post-surgical chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer has notorious side effects due to the high dose required. Multiple devices have been designed to tackle this aspect and achieve a delayed drug release. This study aimed to explore the controlled and sustained local delivery of a reduced drug dose from an irinotecan-loaded electrospun nanofiber membrane (named ) that can be placed on the patients' tissue after tumor resection surgery.

Versatile membrane-based microfluidic platform for in vitro drug diffusion testing mimicking in vivo environments.

Mimicking the diffusion that drugs suffer through different body tissues before reaching their target is a challenge. In this work, a versatile membrane-based microfluidic platform was developed to allow for the identification of drugs that would keep their cytotoxic properties after diffusing through such a barrier. As an application case, this paper reports on a microfluidic device capable of mimicking the diffusion that free or encapsulated anticancer drugs would suffer in the intestine before reaching the bloodstream.

Different Microfluidic Environments for In Vitro Testing of Lipid Nanoparticles against Osteosarcoma.

The use of lipid nanoparticles as biodegradable shells for controlled drug delivery shows promise as a more effective and targeted tumor treatment than traditional treatment methods. Although the combination of target therapy with nanotechnology created new hope for cancer treatment, methodological issues during in vitro validation of nanovehicles slowed their application. In the current work, the effect of methotrexate (MTX) encapsulated in different matrices was evaluated in a dynamic microfluidic platform.

Improved microfluidic platform for simultaneous multiple drug screening towards personalized treatment.

Development of new targeted therapies is a challenge in the battle against cancer. Although a variety of treatments is currently available, there is no technique for rapidly evaluating the response of cancer patients to the drug. In this work, a microfluidic platform for the real-time simultaneous analysis of the success rate of different nanoparticle based chemotherapeutic drugs is presented.

Novel integrated and portable endotoxin detection system based on an electrochemical biosensor.

This paper describes the design, implementation and validation of a sensitive and integral technology solution for endotoxin detection. The unified and portable platform is based on the electrochemical detection of endotoxins using a synthetic peptide immobilized on a thin-film biosensor. The work covers the fabrication of an optimized sensor, the biofunctionalization protocol and the design and implementation of the measuring and signalling elements (a microfluidic chamber and a portable potentiostat-galvanostat), framed ad hoc for this specific application.