Blood-on-a-Chip
A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B:Biology and Biomedicine".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2020) | Viewed by 32758
Special Issue Editor
Interests: microfluidics; microphysiological systems; organs-on-chips; diagnostics; disease modeling; thrombosis; coagulation; lab-on-a-chip; biophysics; fluid dynamics
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
It is with great pleasure that I invite you to contribute to the Special Issue of Micromachines on ‘Blood-on-a-Chip’, in which we will focus on the integration, manipulation, and analysis of blood and its components in microengineered systems.
Blood flows through almost every organ and tissue in our body, transporting molecules, cells, gases, ions, nutrients, and waste from one part of the system to the other. As such, our blood offers a unique window on systemic health and disease, and therefore has great clinical and diagnostic value. Importantly, only limited volumes of blood are available for analysis, particularly in specific patient subgroups like premature infants and sepsis patients. Moreover, the analyte of interest can sometimes be quite rare, as is the case in, e.g., specific cell-free DNAs, cytokines, or circulating tumor cells. Microdevices are uniquely suited to address these challenges by enabling the handling and analysis of small volumes of liquid. Many examples exist of biomedical microdevices based on lab-on-a-chip and biosensor technology that allow analysis of blood or its components, either in laboratory settings, or even in point-of-care applications.
The fluid dynamics of blood is intricately tied to its function and to its role in disease; 25% of all deaths worldwide are due to acute problems in blood flow, such as thrombosis, embolism or bleeding. Microfluidic devices offer unique opportunities to study blood or its components in well-controlled dynamic conditions and allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the relevant biophysical processes in hemostasis, thrombosis, and inflammation. Recently, many advances have been made in flowing blood through microfluidic chips that contain cultured human tissues, including vascular tissue. Such ‘microphysiological systems’ truly integrate microengineered components as well as living cells and tissues, including flowing human blood, thereby capturing tissue-level—and sometimes organ-level—functionality. These integrated microsystems, also known as ‘organs-on-chips’, are currently being applied in disease modeling, drug development and food safety testing.
The rapid developments in studying human blood with microsystems means that current and future microtechnical innovations will enable us to gain an even deeper understanding of human health and disease. For this Special Issue of Micromachines on ‘Blood-on-a-Chip’, I wholeheartedly invite you to submit and share your latest results related to studying human blood in engineered microsystems. I look forward to your contributions!
Dr. Andries D. van der Meer
Guest Editor
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. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- Microfluidics
- Hematology
- Point-of-care
- Biomedical microdevices
- Diagnostics
- Disease modeling
- Lab-on-a-chip
- Biophysics
- Fluid dynamics
- Pharmacology
- Blood
- Platelets
- PBMC
- Endothelium
- Microphysiological systems
- Organs-on-chips
- Inflammation
- Thrombosis
- Coagulation
- Transport
- Biosensing
- Micropumps
- Image analysis
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