{"id":2986,"date":"2019-06-12T09:33:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T13:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ufluidix.com\/circlesecond\/?p=2986"},"modified":"2019-10-09T14:25:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T18:25:51","slug":"mapping-microfluidics-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufluidix.com\/circle\/mapping-microfluidics-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping Microfluidics’ Future: \u201cWhere is the Unknown and How Can We Boldly Go There?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renown stem-cell pioneer Dr. Hans Clevers will be a presenter at Cell Symposia<\/a> in August 2019 in San Diego, USA. In a symposia preview, when queried by an interviewer about how he mentors his Netherlands-based team, Clevers<\/a>\u00a0said he guides new scientists by asking, \u201cWhere is the unknown and how can we boldly go there?\u201d Although he was referring to training researchers, his words fit microfluidics\u2019 future challenges too.<\/p>\n

Current technical advances, and financial predictions for scaling up, are keeping pace with each other. Both are equally varied, complex and wide-ranging. For example, some forecasts<\/a>\u00a0predict an increased demand for portable devices that promote the microfluidics market, by providing fast results and timely diagnoses. Reliable microfluidic methods have numerous applications in healthcare, because they make handling of fluids smoother and easier than in the past \u2014 an entirely viable alternative to customary lab techniques. However, the very same forecasts include the caution that the high price of regulatory approvals, and delays in developing nations, could simultaneously slow global growth within that market.<\/p>\n

Although striking, myriad other advances will be heavily anchored to thorny cost obstacles too. One 2019\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0design incorporates microfluidics-based methods to investigate membraneless organelles, and unveils the processes that link organelles with protein-aggregation diseases, including neurodegenerative conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Another new report covers spontaneous oscillations in microfluidic droplet networks: This 2019\u00a0development<\/a>\u00a0offers a better understanding of blood flow\u2019s oscillations within microvascular networks.<\/p>\n

In a 2019\u00a0Developmental Cell\u00a0<\/em>article, analysts conclude that microfluidic techniques provide precision tools for biology because they further \u201cmanipulation of biological specimens in entirely new ways<\/a>.\u201d These entirely new ways include \u201cextraordinary spatiotemporal resolution, revealing mechanistic insights that would otherwise remain hidden.\u201dIn addition,\u00a0gene expression<\/a> research has put microfluidic devices to work, in pursuit of clarity.<\/p>\n

A recent\u00a0Trends in Biotechnology<\/em> article describes microfluidics that has \u201crevolutionized biotechnology assays. . . Combining deep learning (to analyze data) with microfluidics<\/a> (to acquire data) represents an emerging opportunity in biotechnology that remains largely untapped<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simultaneously, insights about \u201clargely untapped, new ways\u201d are being tempered by practicality. For example, the titles of some recent studies answer the question, \u201cWhat\u2019s in a name?\u201d:<\/p>\n