Our capillary-driven microfluidic chips automatically detect multiple biomarkers after the addition of one drop of sample, triggering a cascade of events powered by capillary forces.

The chips combine microfluidic functional elements: blood filters, sample collectors, valves, channels, reaction chambers and pumps.

We integrate biochemical reagents directly on the microfluidic chips. We dramatically miniaturize biochemical reactions preserving valuable samples and reagents, increasing the sensitivity of tests, accelerating mass transport limited reactions, leading to a faster time to high quality results.

An important advantage is that all fluid processing steps are encoded in the chips. Unlike alternative approaches, there is no need for peripheral equipment for fluid control and processing.

Alternative approaches require several reagents and sample manipulation steps and are therefore confined to the laboratory or the physician’s back office.

In contrast, our microfluidic chips include all reagents and processing steps on-chip and detection of biomarkers can be done at the patient’s side by simply adding sample to the chips.

Our innovative photonics technology measures multiplexed assays from the surface of the microfluidic chips. Our system for illuminating and detecting fluorescence assays is simultaneously simple, affordable, highly reproducible and scalable to large volume manufacturing.

1Drop portable medical diagnostics is robust, multiplexing, easy to use, and affordable. We strongly confine electromagnetic fields to the surface by coupling to propagating or localized surface plasmons.

This interaction largely enhances the field intensity and local optical density of states, increasing the excitation rate, raising the quantum yield, and controlling far field angular distribution of fluorescence light emitted by fluorescent labels. This amplifies fluorescence signal accompanying molecular binding events by several orders of magnitude.

We shorten detection times and increase sensitivity of fluorescence assays.