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• Microfluidics-Based Analysis in Environmental Monitoring

The presence of environmental pollutants, especially the presence of bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens and their toxins, has always been a major public health problem. Traditional detection methods require a lot of time and economic cost, and more efficient alternatives are required. At present, microfluidic devices are showing great potential in the environmental analysis, it has many advantages and is very suitable for environmental analysis in many ways. Creative Biolabs has introduced mature microfluidic technology platforms and chip products to help customers cope with analysis and detection projects related to pathogens in environmental samples. Our service allows you to efficiently detect microbial communities in environmental samples, identify these organisms and monitor their safety.

Fig. 1 Microfluidic environmental monitoring devices.¹

Environmental Monitoring Based on Microfluidic Technology

Over the past few decades, the rapid development of the biochemical, industrial, pharmaceutical and medical industries has led to an increase in the list of emerging pollutants and environmental regulations. As the number of regulated pollutants increases, higher requirements are placed on environmental analysis. Although there have been many high-tech applications in related fields, they are generally limited by high costs and cannot be popularized. Nowadays, the emergence of microfluidic technology makes fast and efficient environmental monitoring possible, it has many advantages, including rapid detection and identification of compounds, low consumption of samples and reagents, and the potential for on-site monitoring. However, in order to effectively solve the various problems encountered in environmental monitoring, there are currently several goals to be achieved:

• Achieve chip sample preparation from complex matrices (such as groundwater) in a high-throughput manner.
• With sensitive and selective detection capabilities, there is no need to perform several days to months of operations on site.
• The device should be low-cost and portable to allow widespread distribution and mobile sensing and/or identification of point source contamination.

Service

There are two trends in the development of microfluidic testing equipment: the development of high-throughput interfaces that couple microchip equipment with conventional instruments and the development of independent integrated testing systems. Although the latter has lower performance, it can be better suited for more compact and cheaper platforms. From a technical point of view, technologies such as mass spectrometry, FTIR and chemiluminescence have all performed well in environmental monitoring. Creative Biolabs' microfluidic platform can provide you with technical support related to the following testing services:

• Electrochemical detection. Electrochemistry is an attractive detection mode because as the size decreases, the instrument is easily miniaturized and the performance loss is minimal. Electrochemical detection techniques can be universal (conductivity detection), semi-selective (amperometric detection by adjusting the potential), and can be highly selective detection by modifying the electrode surface (such as electrochemical immunoassay).
• Optical detection. Optical inspection technologies include some of the cheapest, simple, and universal inspection modes. Despite its limited detection range, it can also be used for many analytes in microfluidic platforms, including phenolic chemicals; air pollutants; benzene, toluene, and xylene transition metal ions.
• Mass spectrometry (MS). MS has been widely used in many different fields of chemical analysis, including environmental analysis. However, complex sample preparation, large solvent consumption, and maintenance complexity limit the application of MS in environmental sample analysis. Microfluidic technology can combine MS technology with single particle analysis and apply to various environmental samples.

If you want to inquire more about our microfluidics-based environmental Monitoring services, please contact us.

Reference

1. Cao, Zhang, et al. " Microfluidic Based Whole-Cell Biosensors for Simultaneously On-Site Monitoring of Multiple Environmental Contaminants." Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 9 (2021): 6622108.

For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use.