The suggestive scenario: Imagine the possibilities offered by a sensor “Implanted” under the skin, thinner than a postage stamp but able to measure clinical parameters in real time directly into the body, convey the information to one smartphone and, from here, immediately to the doctor. Imagine again that the sensor could be bioabsorbed (i.e. degraded into biocompatible products) within the body itself, upon request, when no longer needed. This is a paradigm shift which could revolutionize clinical-diagnostic protocols and open up new avenues that have not yet been explored today. Giuseppe Barillaro, Professor of Electronics at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa describes this the last frontier of lab-on-chip, the miniaturized analysis laboratories to insert them in a chip (a microprocessor) of a few square millimeters and also bring them into the human body.
What are they
That of biosensors to monitor the state of health one of the many metamorphoses that medicine hybridized by technological innovation is experiencing. Professor Barillaro will talk about it at the Taobuk Festival 2021 (taobuk.it), directed by Antonella Ferrara, which will on 19 and 20 June in Taormina in the section dedicated to the Metamorphosis of medicine curated by Professor Carmen Mortellaro, scientific director of the Medical Area of Taobuk. P.rofessor Barillaro, what are lab-on-chips? Miniature laboratories that integrate multiple functions on a single chip and which, in the very near future, they could allow most chemical and biological analyzes to be carried out which today take place in specialized laboratories (for example DNA sequencing, detection of a biomarker), saving time and costs.
The components
What are the components? Depending on the objective (DNA amplification, biomarker detection or drug toxicity study for example), lab-on-chips can have very different architectures. For all, the heart and brain are represented by microfluidics and sensors. Regardless of the application, a network of fluidic microchannels used to bring the biological sample to the sensors that measure parameters of clinical interest, for example the presence of a specific molecule related to a pathological state or to a functional alteration of the organism.
Construction techniques
How are they built? Mainly used are techniques of micro and nanofabrication of silicon integrated circuits, also adapted for polymeric materials. Silicon was historically the first material used. Although it continues to play a key role, polymeric materials are now increasingly used. In recent years, biodegradable organic and inorganic materials have begun to replace the non-degradable counterpart for implantable lab-on-chips. What objectives do you intend to achieve with this technology? The analytical laboratories will continue to do their job. But with lab-on-chips general practitioners and paramedics will also have a tool available to perform “in situ” tests on the patient before going to the laboratory.
Advantages and limitations
Compared to traditional diagnostics, what are the advantages? And what are the limits? Miniaturization offers a number of benefits, among them possibility of carrying out several operations in parallel, portability of the analysis system, speed and sensitivity of diagnostic tests, reduction of the consumption of chemical reagents, biological material, hospital waste. If we think of the latest generation of implantable and bioabsorbable lab-on-chips, all these advantages are even more evident. The limit is that technology has not yet reached a degree of maturity to make them commercially available, if not for some specific applications, such as DNA amplification, Polymerase chain reaction or PCR, now known to most people for the nasopharyngeal swab for the detection of Covid-19.
Fields of application
In what fields of medicine are they already used today? Applications range from cellular and molecular biology, proteomics and biochemistry. We must not forget applications outside the medical field such as food safety and environmental monitoring. How long will it take to transfer to humans? Much depends on the resources that will be invested. Some traditional lab-on-chips are already commercially available e in about ten years we could test the first lab-on-chip on humans bioabsorbable type, at least for some specific applications.
June 18, 2021 (change June 18, 2021 | 12:11)
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