Re: [DIYbio] applications for DIY microfluidics

On 12/28/2012 07:33 AM, Jeswin wrote:
> I know they have been working on
> PCR and cell sorting on these chips. What practical uses should we
> [DIYbio folks] look into?

Once you have ways to pipe small amounts in channels your design,
you can automate combinations of steps that give value.

Think about the stink bug example, but for a microbe you're interested in.

Step one is culturing in an incubator with a fluid handling ability, then take
a sample, run it through a sorter that uses fuzzy logic to ID the bug and
get a 100% sample of one cell microbes that look the same shunted to a channel
that goes to a take out point, where a handler bot moves that to an electrophoresis
gel surface and starts an electrophoresis run. As the run starts, run flush
water through the channels so they stay ready to do another sort.

Multiple incubators could be running with different environments for growth,
tracking yields of bugs and also doing an electrophoresis run to quantify
how much of certain proteins (or maybe other molecules) is getting made.

So, that's not practical as in not for sale today and a little beyond DIY
easy assembly from ebay junk, but I'll be working on it as open hardware soon.

The possible combinations for automation with cheap microfluidics are many --
straight line electrophoresis in capillaries instead of on a gel is one.
Light transmission and reflection spectroscopy is a good one for micro-channels.

Once you can cheaply print channels small enough and any larger sizes, you can hook
up any processes that are usually separate and automate them.

Besides analysis, you can make a fluid processor setup for production of anything
that sells well in small volumes, like tools for other biologists, biologic ID kits
for farmers... If you hook up a fluid processor for growing only the best strain
of some bug, then feed them into a larger piped process you could grow useful
fluid products like fuels, biodegradable molding thermoplastics, probably much more.

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