Recent advances in capillary microflows for point-of-care devices

摘要

Biotechnology has been recently seeing fundamental evolutions: first, a clear shift towards biological applications; second a trend towards the design and fabrication of portable devices; third the choice of inexpensive materials such as plastic or paper. The first aspect has already been reported in the literature. In this work, we deal with the two other recent - and still ongoing - evolutions. From a microfluidic stand point, the trend towards low-cost, portable systems is promoting the use of capillarity for the actuation of fluids. On the other hand, easy-to-use and inexpensive devices can be fabricated using 3D-printing of a plastic matrix or by embossing paper. We present here the recent theoretical developments of capillary flows of biological fluids, from a static and dynamic viewpoint, in open or closed channels. On the other hand, the recent developments of stereolithography and paper-based systems are contributing to the generalization of POC and home-care systems.