Inexpensive 3D microfluidics

With their ability to manipulate microliter to nanoliter volumes of liquids, microfluidic devices have found increasing application in a variety of fields, from ink-jet technology to proteomics and DNA analysis. Most current microfluidic devices are made from glass or polymers, and advances in design and fabrication have opened the realm of three-dimensional, complex flow paths. George Whitesides and colleagues at Harvard University have recently demonstrated 3D devices made from stacked layers of ordinary paper and tape. Thanks to paper's wicking ability, the devices don't require external pumps to drive the liquids through. Indeed, the wicking property of paper is routinely exploited in medical tests such as those for blood glucose, pregnancy, and HIV. To define the microfluidic pathways in the paper-based microfluidic device, the team impregnated each paper layer with a common photoresist, a hydrophobic polymer that could be patterned with UV light. With their channels thus established, the layers of paper were alternated with layers of double-sided tape; holes cut in the tape connected channels in adjacent paper layers. The figure illustrates the complex routing that can be achieved: Four differently colored liquids deposited on the top of a 5 cm × 5 cm, nine-layer stack (left) are, within 5 minutes, wicked through horizontally and vertically to the array of 1024 detection zones on the bottom (right). With reagents or antibodies placed in detection zones prior to assembly, such devices would provide highly parallel, independent assays. The Harvard team sees particular potential for their paper-based devices in medical diagnostics in developing countries. (A. W. Martinez, S. T. Phillips, G. M. Whitesides, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, in press.) — Richard J. Fitzgerald