Development of microflow control technology for blood testing devices • health-in-europe.com

Compared to conventional analytical systems, analytical systems using microfluidic chips offer advantages such as minimized sample volume and reduced analysis time. However, technology is required that precisely controls fluids in extremely small spaces of approximately 50–300 μm. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is an analytical technique used in blood analysis to measure cancer biomarkers; however, although highly sensitive, ELISA requires complex fluid control.

Conventional testing has used complex designs and operations, such as placing multiple valve structures and combining pumps, to perform such fluid control, thereby increasing the cost of test devices and chips; in addition, extensive user training is required to operate such devices. These issues have become major limitations in the community implementation of ELISA.

To address these issues, this study developed a centrifugal microfluidic chip with autonomous control functions. The chip consists of a microfluidic chip with only a simple channel structure that can be formed using mass production technologies such as injection molding. Additionally, researchers perform the analysis by simply rotating the chip at a constant rotational speed for several dozen minutes (constant rotation). So far, the team has demonstrated that this autonomously controlled, centrifugal microfluidic chip can perform an ELISA test that requires complex fluid control. However, the main limitations are that a large number of samples are required for analysis and users require multiple chips and extensive dispensing operations to quantify the test substance.