In this video, we see different colored liquids containing chemicals and biological molecules race down three separate channels to a junction point, where they flow together and create an army of tiny marching bubbles ready for analysis. This plastic chip crisscrossed with microscopic channels and electronic sensors is a microfluidic device-and each of those bubbles created inside of it represents an advancement in biotechnology research that yesterday's scientists could only dream of.
Thanks to microfluidics, molecular analyses that used to require a white-coated lab technician to pipette liquid into individual Petri dishes are now automated. Those tiny bubbles contained in microfluidic devices can be tested quickly and cheaply by machines, processing everything from simple COVID-19 tests to complex DNA analysis.
For synthetic biologists-who design and fabricate new biological parts, devices, and systems, often directly inspired by computer hardware and software, as well as the parts and inner workings of living cells, organisms, and other natural systems-microfluidic devices are hastening research that will carry us into a new age of biotechnology.
We visited BU's Cross-disciplinary Integration of Design Automation Research (CIDAR) lab to see microfluidic devices in action. In the CIDAR lab, Douglas Densmore, BU College of Engineering associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, leads a team of researchers who are automating lab processes commonly used by synthetic biologists. Specifically, Densmore's lab focuses on biosensing, which uses microfluidic analysis for such diverse applications as detecting contaminants in drinking water, evidence of active explosives in public spaces, or poor soil conditions for growing crops.
Densmore says that automating the process of sample analysis is one key to advancing synthetic biology solutions to these kinds of problems-and modular and adaptable microfluidic devices are at the heart of these efforts.
