Microfluidics: an enabling technology for the life sciences

During the last year we have investigated existing and future markets, products and technologies for microfluidics in the life sciences. Within this paper we present some of the findings and discuss a major trend identified within this project: the development of microfluidic platforms for flexible design of application specific integrated microfluidic systems. We discuss two platforms in detail which are currently under development in our lab: microfluidics on a rotating CD ("Lab-CD") as well as a platform to realized customized "nanoliter & picoliter dispensing systems".