Microfluidic Devices for Healthcare and Environment Monitoring

Dear Colleagues,

Developments in miniaturisation and lab-on-a-chips over recent decades have led to many novel analytical devices for “point-of-care” (POC) applications. POC devices can be used to accurately quantify a diverse range of analytes, most notably for medical samples, typically quantifying the concentration of a specified analyte at the moment of sampling. While useful for determining the condition of the sample at a fixed point in time, this poses a problem for any chemically-dynamic system, where transient changes cannot be detected or characterised. POC monitoring adopts a different approach—continuously measuring to give real-time information on changes in the system. For example, in a medical setting, this approach has been used to characterise neurotransmitter variations in the brain, metabolite changes in transplanted tissue. Likewise, in environmental science, microfluidic systems have been used to monitor and characterise nutrient dynamics in marine and river water. This Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on either novel methodological developments that enable POC-monitoring (e.g., developments in sampling, analysis) or cases where the technology has been applied, with particular interests being paid to applications in healthcare and environmental science, where continuous monitoring using microfluidics has already demonstrated potential.

Dr. Xize Niu
Dr. Adrian Nightingale
Guest Editors

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