Thread as a Matrix for Biomedical Assays

Original Entry: Peter Foster, AP 225, Fall 2011 In progress...

Figure 1, taken from [1].

General Information

Authors: Meital Reches, Katherine A. Mirica, Rohit Dasgupta, Michael D. Dickey, Manish J. Butte, and George M. Whitesides

Publication: Reches et al. Thread as a Matrix for Biomedical Assays. Acs Appl Mater Inter (2010) vol. 2 (6) pp. 1722-1728

Summary

This paper details a fairly ingenious application of the capillarity of cotton string. The general idea is that one can think of string like a one dimensional microfluidic device. When one end of the string makes contact with a (water based) liquid, capillary effects will pull the fluid up through the string. Strings can be chemically treated so that they will change their color in the presence of a given chemical and thus can serve as a biomedical diagnostic tool.

Figure 2, taken from [1].

Figure 3, taken from [1].

References

[1] Reches et al. Thread as a Matrix for Biomedical Assays. Acs Appl Mater Inter (2010) vol. 2 (6) pp. 1722-1728