of blood, can be entirely automated using nothing more than a spindle motor and
preprogrammed spin rate, leading to a visually interpreted result or can at times
require simple external/on-disk sensors. This approach obviates the need for spe-
cially trained technicians as the operation is as simple as turning on a CD player,
contamination risks are greatly reduced as the sample to answer process is a closed
system and given the portability of the hardware involved it is possible to use this
concept in decentralised locations away from primary health care facilities, this in
turn would remove any cost associated with sample and results transport.
Described here is a basic overview of the requirements to understand, design,
fabricate, assemble and test the Lab-on-a-disc platform, the equipment required is
common in academic and some industrial settings with the main fabrication mate-
rial being cheap plastic sheets, this means the main cost of implementing this
procedure is the cost of the manual labour required. This protocol is intended to
allow those with limited understanding of centrifugal microfluidics to gain a
foothold within the field which will allow them to explore this promising platform.
References
- Manz A, Graber N, Widmer HM (1990) Miniaturized total chemical analysis systems: a novel
concept for chemical sensing. Sensors Actuators B Chem 1(1–6):244–248. doi:10.1016/0925-
4005(90)80209-I - Whitesides GM (2006) The origins and the future of microfluidics. Nature 442(7101):
368–373. doi:10.1038/nature05058 - Beebe DJ, Mensing GA, Walker GM (2002) Physics and applications of microfluidics in
biology. Annu Rev Biomed Eng 4:261–286 - Ducre ́e J et al (2007) The centrifugal microfluidic Bio-Disk platform. J Micromech Microeng
17(7):S103–S115 - Ottino JM, Wiggins S (2004) Introduction: mixing in microfluidics. Philos Transact Series A
Math Phys Eng Sci 362(1818):923–935 - Barathur R et al (2002) New disc-based technologies for diagnostic and research applications.
Psychiatr Genet 12(4):193–206.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12454524. Accessed
17 Nov 2015 - Focke M et al (2010) Centrifugal microfluidic system for primary amplification and secondary
real-time PCR. Lab Chip 10(23):3210–3212,http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2010/
lc/c0lc00161a. Accessed 17 Nov 2015 - Kido H, Maquieira A, Hammock BD (2000) Disc-based immunoassay microarrays. Anal
Chim Acta 411(1–2):1–11 - Czilwik G et al (2015) Magnetic chemiluminescent immunoassay for human C-reactive
protein on the centrifugal microfluidics platform. RSC Adv 5(76):61906–61912,http://pubs.
rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ra/c5ra12527h. Accessed 13 July 2015 - Mishra R et al (2015) Lipophilic-membrane based routing for centrifugal automation of
heterogeneous immunoassays.http://doras.dcu.ie/20442/1/Mishra_et_al_LIPOPHILIC-MEM
BRANE_BASED_ROUTING_FOR_CENTRIFUGAL_AUTOMATION_OF_HETEROGE
NEOUS_IMMUNOASSAYS_MEMS2015.pdf. Accessed 21 Aug 2015 - Nwankire CE et al (2013) At-line bioprocess monitoring by immunoassay with rotationally
controlled serial siphoning and integrated supercritical angle fluorescence optics. Anal Chim
Acta 781:54–62, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003267013005138.
Accessed 25 Nov 2014
142 B. Henderson et al.