Bioinspired Microfluidics

Dear Colleagues,

Microfluidics is the science and technology of manipulating and analyzing fluids at small scales, typically smaller than 1 mm. Microfluidics enables a number of important applications, such as point-of-care diagnostics, environmental sensing, biosensors, advanced cell culture systems, high-throughput drug testing, inkjet printing, and immersion lithography. In most microfluidic applications, large peripheral equipment like syringe pumps must be connected to the microfluidic devices to generate flow, or complex electrode structures must be integrated into the devices using complex manufacturing methods to achieve electrokinetic pumping.

In recent years, researchers are increasingly studying Nature to find inspiration for more effective, more versatile, and more easily integrated microfluidic manipulation principles. Indeed, a variety of biological mechanisms for fluid manipulation at the submillimeter scale have evolved. Just a few examples include: cilia and flagella are microscopic, hair-like motile structures that oscillate to propel microorganisms, or to transport cells, food, or mucus; many special biological surfaces have tuned surface energy for droplet contact angle control—the best-known is the Lotus leaf with its surface microstructure that makes it superhydrophobic and self-cleaning; plants and trees rely completely on manipulation of water to live and grow—using specialized root structures to absorb water, capillaries for water transport up the stem, and stomata on the leaf’s surfaces for evaporative pumping. All of these, and more, biological principles can be an inspiration for the development of novel microfluidic concepts.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect articles that reflect the recent advances in bioinspired microfluidics. The topics range from basic studies of nature’s microfluidic principles, to manufacturing approaches for realizing micropumps, -mixers, or –valves inspired by nature, to bioinspired surface design for droplet or fluid manipulation, to nature-inspired material systems for microfluidics applications, to microfluidic applications based on principles borrowed from biology.

We believe that this initiative will fill an important gap in biomimetic microfluidics and will stimulate the enthusiastic and inspiring contributions of leading experts in the field.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomimetics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• micropumps
• micromixers
• microvalves
• responsive materials
• droplet control
• stokes flow
• cilia
• surface energy control
• capillary flow
• actuators
• biosensors
• microswimmers
• biomaterials