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Active pumping and control of flows in centrifugal microfluidics

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Abstract

This review is an account of centrifugal microfluidic systems that use various actuation strategies in addition to intrinsic centrifugal forces to accurately regulate the motion of fluids during rotation. Platforms that integrate active methods of pumping and flow control render centrifugal microfluidics more versatile as they facilitate integration and process automation by enabling (or improving the reliability of) important fluidic functions, such as metering, aliquoting, valving, flow switching, mixing, and inward pumping. Principles and working mechanisms underlying these strategies are described in the context of recent trends in instrument design and development where centrifugal platforms have been equipped with pneumatic, magnetic or electromechanical actuators serving as pumping and valving elements. The potential of these platforms to perform complex bioanalytical assays in an automated fashion is illustrated by several examples, which include on-chip preparation of aliquot libraries, nucleic acid purification, amplification and analysis as well as blood separation.

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(Reprinted with permission, Copyright 2015, Royal Society of Chemistry) b, c Close-up views of the rotating stage before and after accommodating a plastic-based, microfluidic chip. d Photograph of the platform in its current form

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the GRDI-funded program “Strengthening Food and Water Safety in Canada through an Integrated Federal Genomics Initiative”. We thank Burton W. Blais (Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa, ON), Nathalie Corneau (Health Canada, Ottawa, ON) as well as Denis Charlebois (Canadian Space Agency, St-Hubert, QC) for support and useful discussions.

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  1. Life Sciences Division, National Research Council of Canada, 75 de Mortagne Boulevard, Boucherville, QC, J4B 6Y4, Canada

    Liviu Clime, Jamal Daoud, Daniel Brassard, Lidija Malic, Matthias Geissler & Teodor Veres

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  1. Liviu Clime
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  2. Jamal Daoud
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Clime, L., Daoud, J., Brassard, D. et al. Active pumping and control of flows in centrifugal microfluidics. Microfluid Nanofluid 23, 29 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-019-2198-x

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