Biological applications of microfluidics using in situ fabrication

One of the major benefits of bioMEMS technology is its ability to make an accurate and economical device which only requires very small amount of samples or reagents that are generally limited and expensive. Another benefit of bioMEMS technology is to use new tools including diffusion, laminar flow, surface tension and evaporation that are usually less effective in macro scale. To date, most practical functions (e.g., pumping, valving, sensing) have been demonstrated many times. A growing issue is the complexity of the 'lab on a chip' with respect to the ability to manufacture micro fluidic systems since the complexity of a device results longer fabrication time and high failure rate. From this perspective, in situ fabrication technology provides advantages over the conventional microfabrication technologies with its simple, quick fabrication style and in-plane geometry.; There are three questions to be answered through this thesis as described below. Can in situ fabrication technology be expanded to biological areas efficiently?; To answer to this question, in situ fabrication technologies including in situ liquid phase photopolymerization (LP 3) and interfacial fabrication (IF) methods are described in Chapter I and materials used for microfluidics are discussed in Chapter 2.; What kind of tools and applications can we create with this technology? The preliminary fabrications and experiments have been conducted in Chapter 3 and 4 using LP3. As an example of in situ fabricated applications, an integrated device for detection of botulinum neurotoxin is described in Chapter 5. The membrane fabrication using IF is discussed in Chapter 6. Based on the preliminary work, a selectively tunable gradient diffusion device for cell migration research is developed in Chapter 7. As a future work, a platform for botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) detection device is proposed in Chapter 8.; What would be the benefit of in situ fabrication technologies compared to the conventional methods in biological areas? The benefits of in situ fabrication technologies are discussed in the following chapters and summaries in detail.