Microfluidics and Nanofluidics for Diagnostic Tests

25 Sep 2024, at 18:30-21:00 in New Orleans

Microfluidics and Nanofluidics for Diagnostic Tests Training Course.

In vitro diagnostic testing is projected to be a US$150B market in 2032 and has been driven by the new push in precision medicine, which seeks to match a patient’s molecular composition of his/her disease to the therapy that would maximize favorable outcomes for that patient. However, the complexity of most molecular testing strategies has demanded new paradigms to streamline the workflow and alleviate the need for sophisticated equipment and well-trained operators to carry out the diagnostic test. In this training course, I will cover the challenges and opportunities for both microfluidics and nanofluidics for clinical diagnostic testing.

The specific items that will be covered in this training course include the following:

• Different types of clinical tests to manage a particular disease
• Clinical and analytical figures-of-merit requirements in clinical diagnostics
• Use of liquid biopsy markers for cancer disease management
• Current diagnostic tests for cancer management
  
  
• Microfluidics for clinical testing
• Test requirements
• Logical choice – plastic microfluidics
• Survey of microfluidic devices for clinical sample processing

• PCR
• Conventional PCR (thermal cycling)
• Droplet digital PCR
• Isothermal amplification
• Mutation detection assays
• Ligase detection reactions
• Allele specific PCR

• Device examples for liquid biopsy analysis
• Enrichment of CTCs
• Enrichment of EVs

• Commercial systems
• Bio-Rad ddPCR
• Agilent TapeStation

• Integrated systems for clinical sample processing
• Different types of integrated systems
• Examples of integrated systems for processing liquid biopsy samples

• Nanofluidics: the wave of the future for clinical testing
• What is nanofluidics and what can it offer
• How to make nanofluidic devices – differences compared to microfluidics
• Logical choice – plastic-based nanofluidics
• Examples of nanofluidics in medical diagnostics
• Nanopore sequencing
• DNA stretching for the detection of DNA structural variations