Applications of microfluidics in biosensing

• Published in: Discover applied sciences Vol. 6; no. 6; p. 303
• Main Authors: Sekhwama, Masindi, Mpofu, Kelvin, Sivarasu, Sudesh, Mthunzi-Kufa, Patience
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 31.05.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied and Technical Physics; Automation; Biosensors; Chemistry/Food Science; Coronaviruses; Earth Sciences; Engineering; Environment; Epidemics; Food processing; Food security; Immunology; Laboratories; Materials Science; Medical research; Microfluidic devices; Microfluidics; Molecular biology; Pandemics; Performance evaluation; Review; Task complexity; Veterinary medicine; Diagnostics; Food security; Microfluidics; Biosensing
• ISSN: 3004-9261; 2523-3963; 3004-9261; 2523-3971
• DOI: 10.1007/s42452-024-05981-4

Microfluidic devices have become a vastly popular technology, particularly because of the advantages they offer over their traditional counterparts. They have such a wide range of uses and can make complex tasks quite efficient. One area of research or work that has benefited greatly from the use of microfluidics is biosensing, where microfluidic chips are integrated into biosensor setups. There are growing numbers of applications of microfluidics in this area as researchers look for efficient ways to tackle disease diagnostics and drug discovery, which are critical in this era of recurring pandemics. In this work, the authors review the integration of microfluidic chips with biosensors, as well as microfluidic applications in biosensing, food security, molecular biology, cell diagnostics, and disease diagnostics, and look at some of the most recent research work in these areas. The work covers a wide range of applications including cellular diagnostics, life science research, agro-food processing, immunological diagnostics, molecular diagnostics, and veterinarian diagnostics. Microfluidics is a field which combines fundamental laws of physics and chemistry to solve miniaturization problems involving fluids at the nanoscale and microscale, and as such, the authors also examine some fundamental mathematical concepts in microfluidics and their applications to biosensing. Microfluidics has relatively new technologies with great potential in terms of applications. Article Highlights This work highlights some key limitations of biosensors. The work reviews the advantages of integrating biosensors with microfluidic devices. The work also highlights different areas (applications) of biosensing that have benefited from the integration of biosensing devices with microfluidics and a future overview.