What Are Microfluidic Platforms?

Microfluidic platforms are a powerful and innovative technology that is revolutionizing a wide range of industries. These platforms are designed to handle and process small amounts of fluids, often on a chip-sized platform. They are used in a diverse array of applications, including medical diagnosis, life science research, food safety testing, agricultural product testing, animal husbandry, and even aquatic product testing.

Introduction of the microfluidic platform

One example of a microfluidic platform is the one developed by CapitalBio, which combines microfluidic technology and isothermal amplification technology. This platform is designed for multi-target nucleic acid rapid detection and can be used in a wide range of fields. It works by taking a sample, putting it into the microfluidic channel, and then amplifying the nucleic acid using the isothermal amplification technology. The detector then sends the fluorescent signal to the computer, where it is processed and turned into a real-time curve. Once the detection is complete, the result is automatically interpreted and displayed.

Advantages of the microfluidic platform

Microfluidic platforms offer many advantages over traditional testing methods. They are highly efficient, as they can process multiple samples simultaneously. They are also very sensitive, able to detect small amounts of target material. Additionally, microfluidic platforms are very specific, minimizing the risk of false positives or false negatives.

The technology behind microfluidic platforms has continued to improve over time, with new advancements in areas such as detection sensitivity, portability, and ease-of-use. This has led to an increase in their use across various industries. In fact, it is estimated that the microfluidic market will continue to grow at a significant rate over the next few years.

In conclusion, microfluidic platforms are an essential tool for a wide range of applications, from medical diagnosis to food safety testing. They offer many advantages over traditional testing methods, including increased efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity. With continued advancements in this technology, it is likely that we will see even more innovative uses for microfluidic platforms in the future.

Microfluidic Platforms from CapitalBio:

CapitalBio® Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Microfluidic Chip Analyzer RTisochip™-A

CapitalBio® Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Microfluidic Chip Analyzer RTisochip™-W

Applications of Microfluidic Platform 

At present, microfluidic platforms have been applied in various fields, such as food safety, animal diseases, clinical testing, and molecular breeding.

(1) Microfluidic Platforms Applied in Food Safety

In the field of food safety, the solution is a combination of three reagent kits and a four-step detection process. The advanced microfluidic chip is equipped with universal culture media and nucleic acid extraction kits, which do not require separate culture media for each type of bacteria, simplifying the experimental process. The microfluidic platform is an open platform that supports users in customizing products to meet different testing needs. Through a four-step detection process, the entire process is controlled within 24 hours. During the breeding and planting stages, it can be used for monitoring production materials and animal susceptibility to pathogens. In the production and processing stage, it can be used for monitoring and screening batch-processed products. In the market circulation process, it can be used by government testing agencies and third-party testing agencies to supervise and inspect commercially available products. 

(2) Microfluidic Platforms Applied in Animal Diseases

In the field of animal diseases, microfluidic platforms are mainly used for detecting mastitis in cows, pig diseases, avian infectious diseases, aquatic diseases, pet diseases, etc. The application scope is also extremely wide, including animal husbandry enterprises, pet hospitals, animal disease control centers, and service centers.

(3) Microfluidic Platforms Applied in Clinical Testing

The microfluidic platform can simultaneously and rapidly detect 13 common respiratory pathogens. Traditional detection methods require bacterial culture to determine the type of bacterial infection. Generally, bacterial culture takes several days, and some bacteria may even take a month. The respiratory pathogen detection kit only requires respiratory secretions and samples such as sputum to determine the type of bacterial infection within 2 hours. These 13 detectable pathogens cover the vast majority of common clinical pathogens. Because this method has the characteristics of rapid detection, high accuracy, and high sensitivity, it can largely solve the problems of long detection cycles, low diagnosis rates, and difficulty in cultivating some bacteria in current clinical lower respiratory tract infection pathogen detection. It provides an effective tool for rapid diagnosis, precise treatment of infectious diseases, and response to major public health emergencies.

(4) Microfluidic Platforms Applied in Molecular Breeding

To verify the disease resistance of materials, conventional methods often require manual inoculation of pathogens, which is labor-intensive and costly. By using molecular breeding methods, disease-resistant materials can be screened based on genotype, accelerating the screening process and obtaining breeding materials needed by the market for targeted improvement of varieties. Microfluidic SNP chip detection platform has the following five characteristics:

Platform accessibility - high cost-effectiveness of supporting platform prices and sample testing;

Integrated testing - equipped with corresponding reagent kits and software;

Simplified operation - manual operation is simple, even personnel without a biological background can operate it;

Customized flexibility - customize “sample+site” products of different specifications;

Cost-saving breeding - rapid screening of target trait individuals through genotyping results.