Are you currently facing long development cycles, high costs from reagent consumption, or the inability to create portable, point-of-care diagnostic solutions? Creative Biolabs' Microfluidic Development Service for Biomarker Detection helps you accelerate diagnostic development, obtain high-quality, reliable data, and streamline your entire process through advanced "lab-on-a-chip" engineering.
Contact our team to get an inquiry now!
Background
Biomarkers are key molecular indicators that reflect the physiological and pathological state of an organism in response to a disease or condition. These quantifiable characteristics can include circulating nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolites, and can be isolated from accessible biological materials like blood or tissue. The ability to perform precise, non-invasive, and rapid biomarker detection, especially in point-of-care (POC) settings, is essential for improving disease screening, diagnosis, and monitoring treatment efficacy.
This is where microfluidic technology provides a transformative solution. By transforming traditional laboratory processes into miniaturized "lab-on-a-chip" devices, microfluidics offers unique opportunities to overcome existing developmental obstacles in diagnostics. These platforms can provide sophisticated, integrated systems that effectively bridge the gap between initial biomarker studies and their ultimate clinical utilization. The power of microfluidic systems lies in their ability to perform complex, multi-step protocols with unparalleled efficiency. For example, a single microfluidic chip can be engineered to sequentially process a small tissue sample and perform quantitative immunostaining for multiple biomarkers. This not only saves valuable samples but also enables comprehensive correlative analysis. The automation of both experimental and analytical methods within these systems is crucial for meeting the growing clinical demand for personalized diagnostics and therapeutics, particularly in complex fields like oncology.
Fig.1 Microfluidic biomarker detection.1,4
A recent study demonstrated a quantitative approach for identifying 10 immunological biomarkers on a single tumor tissue section, which conserves valuable samples and enables a deeper correlative analysis of cell populations and their activation status. The microfluidic chip used was engineered with optimal thermomechanical and optical properties for rapid reagent delivery and automatic imaging via an integrated microscope. The system's capacity for multiplexing is achieved through a robust cyclic immunofluorescence protocol, allowing for quantitative sequential immunostaining of up to 10 biomarkers. This automated and quantitative approach using microfluidic systems is perfectly suited to meet the growing clinical demand for personalized diagnostics and therapeutics in cancer pathology.
Applications
The versatility of microfluidic biomarker detection extends across numerous critical fields, enabling significant advancements in diagnostics and beyond.
Point-of-Care Diagnostics
The portability of microfluidic devices makes them ideal for rapid, on-site diagnostics for infectious diseases (e.g., viruses, bacteria) or emergency markers in remote settings.
Cancer Diagnostics & Liquid Biopsies
Microfluidics is revolutionizing cancer care by enabling the capture and analysis of low-abundance biomarkers, such as circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cell-free DNA, from a simple blood draw.
Personalized Medicine
By allowing for the rapid and simultaneous analysis of multiple biomarkers, our services support the development of personalized treatment plans tailored to a patient's unique genetic and molecular profile.
Infectious Disease Surveillance
Our platforms can be used for rapid, high-throughput screening of pathogens and antibodies, which is crucial for controlling outbreaks and monitoring public health.
What We Can Offer
Creative Biolabs is a full-service provider dedicated to empowering your research and development with cutting-edge microfluidic solutions.
-
Microfluidic Chip Fabrication: Custom fabrication of microfluidic chips from a variety of materials including polymers (PDMS), glass, and paper.
-
Microfluidic Chip Design & Prototyping: Expert design services to conceptualize and develop functional prototypes tailored to your specific assay.
-
One-Stop Microfluidic Solutions: A comprehensive service that handles every step of your project, from initial concept to scalable manufacturing, including assay integration and validation.
-
Microfluidic Chip Products: A curated selection of pre-designed microfluidic chips optimized for common applications like cell sorting, droplet generation, and immunoassay.
Leverage our specialized benefits—Request a quotation today
Workflow
Why Choose Us
Opting for Creative Biolabs' microfluidic solutions means selecting a collaborator dedicated to superior performance. Our expertise, advanced technology, and customer-centric approach provide tangible advantages that set us apart.
Advantages:
-
Miniaturization and Efficiency: Our devices require only microliter to picoliter volumes, leading to significant cost savings on expensive reagents and precious samples.
-
Enhanced Reaction Kinetics: The small channel dimensions and high surface-area-to-volume ratio enable rapid mixing and efficient heat transfer, dramatically accelerating reaction times.
-
High Sensitivity & Specificity: Our precision-engineered surfaces and optimized fluid control reduce non-specific binding and enhance the signal-to-noise ratio, allowing for the detection of low-abundance biomarkers.
-
Integration & Automation: We can integrate multiple steps, from sample preparation to detection, onto a single chip, creating automated, "sample-to-answer" solutions that minimize manual labor and human error.
-
Portability: Our designs are ideal for creating compact, portable devices, paving the way for point-of-care diagnostics and in-field analysis.
Published Data
Fig.2 Expression analysis on lung adenocarcinoma: T-cell phenotyping.2,4
The microfluidic system's functionality was validated through several key experiments. The fabricated chip, with its integrated optical-grade glass, was able to heat to the required staining (37℃) and elution (50℃) temperatures in under 30 seconds. Cell detection algorithms proved highly effective, demonstrating a 90% sensitivity and precision. Staining and elution efficiency were also characterized in detail; all 10 biomarkers showed a high contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR > 2) with minimal incubation times. The elution process was confirmed to be highly efficient, as re-staining with secondary antibodies yielded a low CNR. While most epitopes remained stable after multiple cycles, PD-1 showed a slight signal decrease, leading to an optimized staining order. The microfluidic multiplex immunofluorescence (IF) showed a high correlation (r=0.97) with conventional single-plex immunohistochemistry (IHC), confirming its reliability. The entire 10-plex staining process, including imaging, was completed in under seven hours, a significant time reduction compared to traditional methods.
FAQs
Q: What scientific principles enable microfluidics to reduce reagent consumption?
A: The micro-scale channels and chambers in these devices allow for precise control over fluid volumes. By operating in the microliter to picoliter range, microfluidic systems drastically reduce the amount of expensive reagents and valuable samples required for each assay, leading to significant cost efficiency.
Q: How does microfluidic technology improve assay sensitivity and accuracy compared to macro-scale methods?
A: Microfluidic systems improve sensitivity by concentrating analytes in a smaller volume, increasing the local concentration and enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio. The controlled laminar flow and reduced diffusion distances also minimize non-specific interactions and ensure more efficient binding of target molecules, leading to higher accuracy and more reliable data.
Q: What are the key considerations for integrating a novel assay onto a microfluidic platform?
A: Successful integration requires a comprehensive understanding of fluid dynamics and surface chemistry. Key considerations include: optimizing channel geometry to ensure proper mixing and flow; selecting a material with the appropriate surface properties to prevent non-specific binding; and adapting the detection method for a miniaturized format, such as integrating optical or electrochemical sensors.
Q: How do microfluidic devices handle the complexities of biological matrices like whole blood?
A: Specialized microfluidic designs can integrate on-chip sample preparation modules. These modules perform tasks such as cell separation or plasma filtering, allowing the device to process complex samples automatically and isolate the target analytes without the need for time-consuming manual pre-processing.
Creative Biolabs serves as your reliable collaborator for enhancing biomarker identification. Our expertise in microfluidic technology, combined with our collaborative and detailed approach, ensures that your diagnostic and research goals are met with precision and efficiency.
Featured Services
Feature Products
|
CAT No
|
Material
|
Product Name
|
Application
|
|
MFCH-001
|
Glass
|
Herringbone Microfluidic Chip
|
Processing samples and reagents in Nucleic acid analysis, blood Analysis, immunoassays and point-of-care diagnostics.
|
|
MFMM-0723-JS12
|
Glass
|
Double Emulsion Droplet Chip
|
Our double emulsion microfluidic chip, incorporating localized modifications and a classic flow-focusing structure, is specifically designed to generate stable and uniform double emulsion droplets.
|
|
MFCH-005
|
PDMS
|
3D Cell Culture Chip-Neuron
|
Neuron cell culture and study of axon transport, axon protein synthesis, axon damage/regeneration, signal transduction of axon to somatic signal.
|
|
MFCH-009
|
PDMS
|
Synvivo-Idealized Co-Culture Network Chips (IMN2 radial)
|
SynBBB 3D Blood Brain Barrier Model/SynRAM 3D Inflammation Model/SynTumor 3D Cancer Model/SynTox 3D Toxicology Model
|
|
MFMM1-GJS4
|
COC
|
BE-Doubleflow Standard
|
Studying circulating particles, cell interactions and simple organ on chip system construction.
|
|
MFMM1-GJS6
|
COC
|
BE-Transflow Custom
|
Used to construct cell interface or Air-Liquid interface (ALI) to study more complex culture systems.
|
Click here to Explore our complete product catalog.
Consult our specialists for detailed insights and project-specific deliberations.
References
-
Park, Dohyun et al. "High-Throughput Microfluidic 3D Cytotoxicity Assay for Cancer Immunotherapy (CACI-IMPACT Platform)." Frontiers in immunology vol. 10 1133. 28 May. 2019, https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.01133
-
Migliozzi, Daniel et al. "Microfluidics-assisted multiplexed biomarker detection for in situ mapping of immune cells in tumor sections." Microsystems & nanoengineering vol. 5 59. 6 Nov. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-019-0104-z
-
Fergola, Andrea et al. "Droplet Generation and Manipulation in Microfluidics: A Comprehensive Overview of Passive and Active Strategies." Biosensors vol. 15,6 345. 29 May. 2025, https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15060345
-
Distributed under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.
