Preface

The Microfabrication technology has stimulated a plurality of lab-on-a-chip research for biomedical researchers and health care practitioners to manipulate and analyze complex biological fluids at the nano and microliter scale. Specifically, various miniaturized diagnostic devices have been developed for blood sample detection, which can increase diagnostic capacity significantly by enabling rapid, point-of-care chemical analysis. Recently, more and more researchers are paying attention to on-chip whole blood sample pretreatment, which is the focus of this eBook, aiming to form real Micro Total Analysis Systems (uTAS) for whole blood analysis by integrating blood sample pre-treatment and detection together.

The eBook consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction on the background of whole blood and the concept of µTAS, followed by a summary of specific microfluidic chips for whole blood pretreatment. Chapter 2 firstly reviews microfluidic chips for plasma isolation from whole blood samples with various methodologies (i.e., microfiltration, microcentrifugation, ultrasound, Zweifach–Fung effect and capillary effect). Then two examples using the plasma skimming effect and crossflow filtration respectively are discussed in detail. Chapter 3 firstly reviews microfluidic devices for blood cell filtrating, sorting and collection. Sorting methods such as size filtration, optical and magnetic manipulation, affinity separation, dielectrophoretic manipulation are covered and compared. Then a case study using crossflow filtration is analyzed in detail. Chapter 4 firstly reviews reported microfluidic devices for blood cell lysis in which mechanical lysis, sonication lysis, thermal lysis, electrical lysis, chemical lysis and optical lysis are covered. And then a cell lysis microchip using chemical agents for cell lysis is chosen as an example for further concept demonstration. Chapter 5 firstly reviews microfluidic devices for DNA extraction and purification by comparing reported methods of solid phase extraction, solid phase reversible immobilization and liquid/liquid extraction. And then two microchips with different solid phase matrixes are used for demonstration of chip based DNA extraction. Chapter 6 firstly reviews current integrated microfluidic platforms for blood pretreatment, followed by a case study.

Both fundamental analysis and specific applications are presented in this eBook, which is written for researchers, engineers, and advanced students who have research interest in whole blood pretreatment and miniaturized techniques.

We would like to express our appreciation to Bentham Science Publishers and their team members.