Lab on a microchip.
By alternating the flow of fluid through tiny plastic pipes, a team of mechanical engineers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has discovered a new and speedier way to mix liquids, which in turn will someday produce better and safer medications.
“Everybody looks at creating turbulence in three dimensions to mix liquids,” said team leader Nadine Aubry, PhD, Jacobus distinguished professor and chair of the mechanical engineering department at NJIT. “We traded space for time, which is a much simpler way to handle this problem when space is at a premium.”
A paper by Aubry and her team, “Electroosmotic Mixing in Microchannels,” published in the Nov. 29, 2004 issue of Lab on a Chip, showed that mixing can be accomplished by changing the flow rates by simply varying the voltage applied to the electrodes that commonly pump the fluid through a micro-channel. This publication follows other journal articles about similar research using other types of pumping: the Aug. 15, 2004 issue of Analytical Chemistry as well as the May 19, 2003 issue of Lab on a Chip.
Wonder how long it’ll be before they can make an implantable version which can make drugs on the spot to treat you for disease without you needing to go to the doctor or even knowing you were sick?
duffer
January 4, 2005, 11:13pm
2
Huh, who knew NJ had a tech institute?
This sounds really neat. And I love the follow up of chips forming drugs to fight disease immediately.
Tuckerfan , we can always count on you to bring us the latest in technologic advancements and neat new toys. (I loved the flying lawnmower link.)