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Lab on a Chip: A Foresight LINK-funded collaborative research project
Miniaturisation of chemical analysis and synthesis will improve throughput, performance and
accessibility, and lead to significantly reduced costs. But experience has taught us
that to maximise these benefits, it is not enough to work on the individual steps of
a process (such as extraction, chromatography or detection) - we must scale down the
entire system. This complex challenge has recently been taken up in the UK by a
consortium of eleven companies and seven universities, coordinated by LGC with the
University of Hull. Lab on a Chip, the work programme undertaken by the consortium,
is funded by government in the form of a Foresight LINK award, and by the industrial
participants, and is worth some £3.4 million over three years. The proposal itself
was judged to be the best of approximately 100 entrants when the first Foresight LINK
awards were announced in late 1998.
At the heart of the work programme are chip-based chemical reactions and
microfluidics - the transport of fluids and materials in an environment of reduced
dimensions. Beside these, but no less important, are detection methods and sample
handling prior to processing. Significantly, the programme is developing standard
connection and compatibility protocols for the components of chemical microsystems,
offering powerful 'plug and play' customisation approaches to individual analytical
problems. The emphasis is very much on demonstrating that the products can work with
real samples and real matrix materials - and already, some of the results are being
prepared for commercial launch.
LGC manages the Lab on a Chip programme, drawing on the company's expertise gained
from ten years' experience of on-chip chemistry. The consortium approach provides the
critical mass of resources and knowledge necessary to enable researchers and
technology provider companies to work together more effectively to meet the needs of
end users.
You can read more about the project by visiting the consortium's web site at
http://www.labonachip.org.uk/.
The RSC's Lab on a Chip Network, at http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/locn/
contains more general information and links relevant to miniaturisation in chemistry.
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