The future of microfluidic assays in drug development

Abstract

Microfluidics affords unique capabilities in sample preparation and separation, combinatorial synthesis and array formation, and incorporating nanotechnology for more functionalities. The pharmaceutical industry, facing challenges from limited productivity and accelerated competition, can thus greatly benefit from applying new microfluidic assays in various drug development stages, from target screening and lead optimization to absorption distribution metabolism elimination and toxicity studies in preclinical evaluations, diagnostics in clinical trials and drug formulation and manufacturing process optimization.