Microfluidics is the fine art of moving tiny amounts of liquid around and is increasingly used in fields such as biology and chemistry. By miniaturizing experiments, it’s possible to run many experiments in parallel and have tighter control over experimental conditions. Unfortunately, the hardware to run these microfluidic experiments is expensive.
[Craig]’s 2017 Hackaday Prize entry involves creating a microfluidics control system for use by researchers and students. This device allows for miniaturized experiments to be run. This allows more projects to be run in parallel and far more cheaply, as they don’t use as many resources like reagents.
[Craig]’s rig consists of an ESP32, a 40-channel IO expander, 3 pressure regulators tuned to different pressures, and around 2 dozen solenoid valves mounted to manifolds. Solutions are moved around with a combination of two pumps, with one providing positive pressure and one serving as a vacuum pump.
Far cheaper than professional microfluidics systems, [Craig]’s project aims to assist biohackers and underfunded researchers in their pursuits.
Very cool. I’m an engineer at the Parker Hannifin division that makes those diaphragm pumps. Nice to see them actually being used in something.
Huh? They look exactly like the pumps you can get off ebay/aliexpress/amazon for a few bucks each.
Cheap Chinese junk often imitates the better stuff. Besides, there’s only so many ways an established technology can be put together. It’s not in the looks, it’s what’s inside, the manufacturing quality and quality control that matter.
“Microfluidics is the fine art of moving tiny amounts of liquid around and is increasingly used in fields such as biology and chemistry.”
Shrunk down to a lab-on-a-chip.
It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-3773/homepage/virtual/microfluid.html#idUpdate2017 [Just updated, but none of these are Open Access, you have to do the Technical Library or Affiliate Key subquests!]
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201708238/abstract maybe [it’s like a…rainbow of pain, only of temperature and pressure in a 1000-chamber envelope], http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201705194/abstract [increase the reactivity in your chamber-bound protein’s folded domains] just in case. Conference in July.
http://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/about-journals/rsc-advances/ has been Open Access all year, but I don’t understand omics (loading… spinner at https://www.omicsonline.org/scientific-journals.php , no link list.)