Lab-on-Chip devices
Lab-on-Chip (LOC) devices have shown potential for medical applications, with multiple processes integrated on a chip on a platform smaller than the palm of a hand.

This UMC project intends to construct LOC devices applicable for functional studies of microbial communities in environmental samples. Applying LOC devices in these systems presents many challenges, e. g. large sampling volumes, large biodiversity (with unidentified species), large variations in sampling media (e. g. soil, water) and contaminating substances.

Fig. 1. Apparatus for fast and gentle cell separation

The start project focused on developing a LOC for rapid fingerprinting of microbial communities by length heterogeneity PCR. Currently, the research concerns two different fields of interest: cell handling and physiological characterization of microbial cells. Within cell handling, different technologies for cell sorting (Figs. 1 and 2) by size discrimination have been tested and reported in several scientific articles (see Publications, above). The physiological LOC devices are still in the early phase of development.

Fig. 2. Mechanism used for cell separation. Hydrodynamic filtering allows for size discrimination fractionation, with small and large particles having different trajectories.


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