Title: Impact of microfluidic systems for molecular and genomic analysis: technological and socio-economic perspectives

Authors: Silvia Petroni, Dino Accoto, Barbara Labella, Giuseppe Turchetti, Eugenio Guglielmelli

Addresses: Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Universita Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128, Rome, Italy. ' Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Universita Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128, Rome, Italy. ' Dipartimento Qualita e Accreditamento, Agenzia Nazionale per i Servizi Sanitari Regionali, via Puglie 23, 00187, Rome, Italy. ' Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Liberta 33, 56127 Pisa, Italy. ' Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Universita Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128, Rome, Italy

Abstract: The last few years witnessed a remarkable development of microsystems for the life sciences. In particular, molecular and genomic analysis techniques underwent a tremendous development. After a focused review on these fields, it will be shown that most of the solutions proposed primarily aim at a higher level of automation for saving costs and time, while reducing the errors that may occur with manual methods. Some socio-economic considerations are also provided to sketch the potential market of such novel devices and a patent overview is presented. A future scenario, enabled by microtechnologies, is eventually provided.

Keywords: microfluidics; genomics; microdevices; LOC; lab-on-a-chip; microtechnology; molecular analysis; genomic analysis; socio-economic considerations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2011.038471

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2011 Vol.5 No.1, pp.29 - 43

Published online: 21 Jan 2015 *

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