Lab on a Chip Blog

On the front cover of Issue 21 Hatice Altug et al. demonstrate the first example of a large-scale plasmonic microarray with over one million sensors on single microscope slide.

Large-scale plasmonic microarrays for label-free high-throughput screening
Tsung-Yao Chang, Min Huang, Ahmet Ali Yanik, Hsin-Yu Tsai, Peng Shi, Serap Aksu, Mehmet Fatih Yanik and Hatice Altug
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3596-3602
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20475K

The inside front cover highlights the review from Jurgen Popp on droplet-based microfluidic systems in Raman and SERS.

Droplet formation via flow-through microdevices in Raman and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy—concepts and applications
Anne März, Thomas Henkel, Dana Cialla, Michael Schmitt and Jürgen Popp
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3584-3592
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20638A

And on the back cover is work from Piotr Garstecki et al.  showing their results on the speed of individual droplets in microfluidic channels – revealing quite a complex landscape of functional dependencies.

Speed of flow of individual droplets in microfluidic channels as a function of the capillary number, volume of droplets and contrast of viscosities
Slawomir Jakiela, Sylwia Makulska, Piotr M. Korczyk and Piotr Garstecki
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3603-3608
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20534J

As with all our cover article, these are free to access for the next 6 weeks.

On the cover of Issue 20 we have hot articles from Ye and Demirci et al., Liu and Kokini et al. and Ren and Wu et al.

The outside front cover depicts Bin Ye and Utkan Demirci‘s paper where they have demonstrated that a mobile phone can be used to image and process the results of an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test on a microchip, reducing previously bulky equipment to a size where it could be used at the bedside.

Integration of cell phone imaging with microchip ELISA to detect ovarian cancer HE4 biomarker in urine at the point-of-care
ShuQi. Wang, Xiaohu Zhao, Imran Khimji, Ragip Akbas, Weiliang Qiu, Dale Edwards, Daniel W. Cramer, Bin Ye and Utkan Demirci
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3411-3418

The inside front cover highlights green microfluidic research from Gang Logan Liu and Jozef L. Kokini, where they have used a by-product from corn – zein – instead of the traditional plastics to produce a microfluidic device.  This article was also highlighted in Chemistry World.

Green microfluidic devices made of corn proteins
Jarupat Luecha, Austin Hsiao, Serena Brodsky, Gang Logan Liu and Jozef L. Kokini
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3419-3425

And on the back cover is work from Hongwen Ren and Shin-Tson Wu where they report a novel approach which can extensively spread a liquid crystal interface, which opens a route to new voltage controllable, polarization-insensitive, and broadband liquid photonic devices.

Voltage-expandable liquid crystal surface
Hongwen Ren, Su Xu and Shin-Tson Wu
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3426-3430

On the front cover of Issue 19 is an article from Aaron Wheeler et al. on their new method for the analysis of dried blood spot samples. The method has the potential to offer automation of dried blood samples, which are useful for a number of clinical and pharmaceutical applications due to the small sample sizes involved and ease of storage.  The team have developed a prototype microfluidic system to quantify amino acids in which analytes are extracted, mixed with internal standards, derivatized, and reconstituted for analysis by tandem mass spectrometry.

This hot article was also recently reported on in C&EN.

A digital microfluidic method for dried blood spot analysis
Mais J. Jebrail, Hao Yang, Jared M. Mudrik, Nelson M. Lafrenière, Christine McRoberts, Osama Y. Al-Dirbashi, Lawrence Fisher, Pranesh Chakraborty and Aaron R. Wheeler
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3218-3224
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20524B

On the cover this month are two hot articles from Nicholas A. Melosh et al. and Malancha Gupta et al, and both articles are free to download for the next 6 weeks.

Nicholas Melosh’s article on the outside front cover depicts their method for controlled chemical delivery in microfluidic cell culture devices without fluid flow over the cells, thereby avoiding the problem of cell perturbation.

Rapid spatial and temporal controlled signal delivery over large cell culture areas
Jules J. VanDersarl, Alexander M. Xu and Nicholas A. Melosh
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3057-3063
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20311H

On the inside front cover, the image from Malancha Gupta highlights a vapour deposition method to line the surfaces of PDMS microfluidic devices with a cross-linked fluoropolymer barrier coating, which significantly increases the chemical compatibility of the devices.

Vapor deposition of cross-linked fluoropolymer barrier coatings onto pre-assembled microfluidic devices
Carson T. Riche, Brandon C. Marin, Noah Malmstadt and Malancha Gupta
Lab Chip, 2011, 11, 3049-3052
DOI: 10.1039/C1LC20396G

For the rest of the issue, including hot articles see here