New Opportunities for Polymer Nanocomposites in Microfluidics and Biomedical MEMS: An introduction to cutting-edge composite polymer materials for use in microfluidics and biomedical MEMS

From the miniaturization of laboratory instrumentation for bedside rapid diagnosis of disease to bioanalytical instrumentation for studying individual cells or molecules in new ways using micromachined structures, microfluidics is well established as an exciting area of research with great promise and an ever-growing application base. Microfluidics is revolutionizing laboratory methods and biomedical devices, offering new capabilities and instrumentation for multiple areas such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis, proteomics, enzymatic analysis, single-cell analysis, immunology, point-of-care medicine, personalized medicine, drug delivery, and environmental toxin and pathogen detection. Through the combination of biosensors; microchannel fluid transport; and other micromechanical, optical, chemical, and fluidic components; microfluidic-based instrumentation has spawned research into miniaturized systems, e.g., bedside rapid diagnosis, wearable environmental monitoring, and biological single-cell monitoring.