Abstract

Microfluidic technologies for Sample Preparation: Market & Technologies Analysis

Benjamin Roussel, Division Director, Yole Développement

An in-vitro assays workflow generally begins by the sample collection and finish by the detection. In between, preparation of biological sample is often mandatory. Sample pre steps are diverse (mixing, extraction, amplification…) and depend on the type of sample, type of assay and detection method used. Today, numerous automated sample preparation systems exist for laboratories. They enable time-saving and improve reproducibility while limiting human errors. However, these systems are often expensive and use large amount of reagents. Moreover, sample preparation cannot be decentralized with such systems, enabling a serious issue for point-of-care devices. These devices are supposed to enable fast, decentralized testing, and some are even to be used by untrained people. This is incompatible with in-lab sample preparation. Microfluidics can bring solutions in order to integrate automated sample preparation on-chip. By reducing the amount of reagents used, the cost per test is as well reduced. However, implementing such microfluidic solutions for sample preparation is quite challenging. Indeed, sample preparation is rarely limited to only one or two steps, and requires often five, seven or more steps before the sample is ready for analysis. That means a lot of functions need to be implemented on a single chip. This presentation will show why and where microfluidic technology can play a role for sample preparation.