3D Printing: An Accelerator for Customized Microfluidic Applications
Leibniz Universität Hannover - Institut für Technische Chemie
Germany

Driven by its ever-increasing resolution, 3D printing is revolutionizing the access to microfluidic fabrication: Rapid prototyping of complex internal structures using biocompatible materials enables the fabrication of customized microfluidic systems, which are being used in a growing number of laboratories in life sciences and biotechnology. This presentation will provide guidance for the successful transfer from design to application of microfluidic systems using 3D printing. A particular focus will be on two 3D-printed platforms as feasible and cost-effective solutions for passive or active parallelization and automatization of microfluidic devices. By including small fittings (e.g., Luer lock), micromixers, or servo-controlled microvalves, the potential integration of customizable 3D-printed microfluidic systems into biotechnological applications such as antimicrobial susceptibility testing, organ-on-a-chip, or live-cell-imaging will be highlighted.

Miniaturization, multiplexing and single cell handling– an excellent foundation for next generation diagnostics
SCIENION
Germany

SCIENION’s proprietary non-contact dispensing technology is a central hub seamlessly integrated with upstream and downstream processing steps for many next generation diagnostic products. Further development of array based analytics focuses on new components and methods as surface functionalized substrates, probe deposition techniques, strategies of probe immobilization, target preparation and incubation as well as label and label free detection methods to improve sensitivity, reproducibility and to minimize material consumption. The transfer of these systems from open R&D platforms using e.g. microplates to cartridge systems using fully integrated microfluidic chips or biosensors is another goal to enable fully automated diagnostics in the clinical laboratory and Point of Care applications. We will present recent results on miniaturization of DNA or protein based diagnostic test and single cell application using SCIENION technologies.

Magnetic surface microrollers against physiological flows in living microfluidic chips
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Germany

Controlled microrobotic navigation in blood vessels holds significant potential to revolutionize targeted drug delivery. We use microfluidic platforms to test the performance of the magnetic microrollers in physiological flows. The microrobotic system consist of cell-sized silica microparticles half-coated with magnetic material, while the silica face has cancer cell selective antibodies and drugs. The microfluidic setup is composed of a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) top piece encompassing fluidic connections, a double-sided tape defining the channel shape and height, and a glass bottom piece. The endothelialized microfluidic channels provide robust platform for the testing of surface microrollers in physiological flows.

Gate-coupling and Single-trap Effects for Sensitivity Enhancement in Nanowire Field-effect Transistor Biosensors
Forschungszentrum Jülich, Bioelectronics (IBI-3)
Germany

Nanowires are unique nanomaterial promising for many fundamental studies as well as for nano - and bioelectronics applications. We develop biosensors based on nanowires for the early detection of cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases. Based on our comprehensive studies on transport and noise phenomena in the fabricated devices, we propose novel approaches on the basis of gate-coupling and single-trap effects for the detection of the target biomarkers with enhanced sensitivity for advanced biosensing. The developed approach opens prospects for diagnosis of the diseases in real-time at the early stages when therapy can be effectively applied to restore the healthy state of the patient.

Precise Contactless Spotting for Lab-on-Chip Application
MICRODROP TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
Germany

Lab-on-chip devices as small microfluidic devices equipped with microchannels carry out diagnostic tests by enabling reactions between patient samples and reagents. The devices deliver test results with very small sample volumes in a short period of time. For production of lab-on-chip devices a precise, fast material deposition method is needed. Typically, the devices are produced at high numbers under high throughput conditions. The substrates may be made of different materials but all have a structured surface like channels. Deposition or Spotting of reagents onto the chip is a demanding task and requires filling of small cavities and microchannels with a high accuracy. This can be done with a microspotting platform based on in inkjet technology. The flexibility of this technology allows solutions adapted to the specific customer needs. It is demonstrated how high accurate the volume of spotted reagents and precise of placement is achieved under high throughput production conditions. www.microdrop.de

R&D Solutions Using Mass-Producible Versatile Acoustofluidic Chips
Leibniz IFW Dresden
GERMANY

Surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based acoustofluidics is a promising technology for versatile applications in the manipulation of liquids, cells and (bio-) particles. This includes, among others, the generation of aerosols, liquid mixing, focusing and sorting of different cells or particles. Current limits for their production and application in an industrial scale are complex fabrication process, low performing materials and non-optimized periphery. We present our developments of new-generation SAW-based acoustofluidic devices employing chips with precisely integrated microchannels, task-specific periphery and automation solutions to support a variety of your application scenarios.

PowderMEMS - Integration of porous structures on wafer-level
Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology ISIT
GERMANY

This talk presents PowderMEMS, a novel technology for the creation of porous microstructures on wafer-level. The PowderMEMS process solidifies micron-sized particles via atomic layer deposition (ALD) to create three-dimensional microstructures on planar substrates. The process offers numerous degrees of freedom for the design of functional (Bio-)MEMS, such as a wide choice of different materials and the precise fabrication of 3D volumes at substrate level with a defined degree of porosity. Porous PowderMEMS microstructures tolerate post-processing to integrate additional functional structures such as electrodes or heaters. The potential of PowderMEMS towards bioanalysis and biosensors is discussed and applications such as microscale chromatography and catalysis are presented.

Scanning Probe-Based Rapid Prototyping of Single Cell Chips
Center for Physical Sciences and Technology
Lithuania

We present scanning-probe based techniques for fabrication of sub-micron surface features for single-cell arraying and controlled adhesion. Such rapid prototyping can be implemented by commercial scanning probe (SP) microscopy instrumentation, in the regular chemical laboratory environment. Our key process is direct chemical writing at a speed up to 100 µm s-1, with an SP functioning as a nanofluidic pen for transferring mixtures of surface-selective bifunctional compounds and lipids. We fabricate and subsequently replicate a few mm-sized chip areas, consisting of protein features of virtually any geometry, at a submicron resolution. We demonstrate the utility of the SP nanolithography in the design of subcellular patterns for programming cytoskeletal architectures and developing new single-cell sensing platforms.

Innovative approach for dynamic flow regimes on cerebral organoid maturation
Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ege
TURKEY

A bioengineered whole brain organoids that can be widely self-organized by iPSCs-derived cells, have become imperative for modelling various neurological disease in a physiological and functional manner. One of the most critical points in brain organoid development is the initiation of dynamic flow conditions that support oxygen and nutrient diffusion to the tissue while promoting neuronal self-organization and organoid survival. In addition to traditional methods, microfluidic systems have been investigated that provide controlled dynamic flow conditions by imitating laminar blood flow in the brain, support growth factor diffusion, metabolite exchange in larger sizes and survival for a long time. A molecularly-functionally-structurally matured brain organoids have been formed with high harvestability using the microfluidic platform that is designed in our group.