Stand-alone self-powered integrated microfluidic blood analysis system (SIMBAS)

TLDR

SIMBAS is powered by pre‑evacuated PDMS and is designed to integrate minimal components while maintaining rapid, complete bioassays, a key advance toward point‑of‑care diagnostics. The authors present a self‑powered, fully integrated microfluidic system that analyzes raw whole blood without external connections, tethers, or tubing. The system accepts a 5 µL blood droplet, passively removes red and white cells via a trench structure, and detects analytes in platelet‑rich plasma, all powered by the pre‑evacuated PDMS substrate. SIMBAS completes five biotin‑streptavidin assays in 10 min with a 1.5 pM limit of detection and achieves 99.9–100 % blood‑cell retention in the passive structure.

Abstract

We present a self-powered integrated microfluidic blood analysis system (SIMBAS) that does not require any external connections, tethers, or tubing to deliver and analyze a raw whole-blood sample. SIMBAS only requires the user to place a 5 μL droplet of whole-blood at the inlet port of the device, whereupon the stand-alone SIMBAS performs on-chip removal of red and white cells, without external valving or pumping mechanisms, followed by analyte detection in platelet-containing plasma. Five complete biotin-streptavidin sample-to-answer assays are performed in 10 min; the limit of detection is 1.5 pM. Red and white blood cells are removed by trapping them in an integral trench structure. Simulations and experimental data show 99.9% to 100% blood cell retention in the passive structure. Powered by pre-evacuation of its PDMS substrate, SIMBAS' guiding design principle is the integration of the minimal number of components without sacrificing effectiveness in performing rapid complete bioassays, a critical step towards point-of-care molecular diagnostics.