Lab-on-a-Chip Cuts Costs of Sophisticated Lab Tests Engineers at Rutgers University have designed a three-inch long, and one-inch wide device that can replace benchtop assays and perform complex analyses using 90 percent less sample fluid than a traditional test.  The new device uses microfluidics technology and could significantly reduce the cost of sophisticated tests for diseases such as HIV, Lyme disease and syphilis, according to the study authors.

The team, including Mehdi Ghodbane, Ph.D., who now works in biopharmaceutical research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, published their results in the journal Lab on a Chip.

In addition to being able to use less fluid, the new technology also needs one-tenth of the chemicals used in a typical multiplex immunoassay, and it automates much of the skilled labor involved in performing tests.

The device analyzes 32 samples at once and measure widely varying concentrations of as many as six proteins in a sample.

Ghodbane advisor, Martin Yarmush, the Paul and Mary Monroe Chair and Distinguished Professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers, said the results are as accurate and sensitive as the standard benchtop assay.   

�With our technology, researchers will be able to perform large-scale controlled studies with comparable accuracy to conventional assays,� Yarmush said.

The development could have implications for animal research on central nervous system disorders, which has been limited due to lack of the ability to remove sufficient cerebrospinal fluid to perform standard assays.

The ability to analyze miniscule amounts of fluid could also promote more research on autoimmune joint diseases, which has also been limited because researchers can only extract a tiny amount of joint fluid from lab animals.