Papers by Author: Danilo Demarchi

Abstract: In this study, a lab-on-chip (LOC) system is designed for the cell sensors to provide a high-efficient continuous analysis platform of acute toxicants in water environment. The chip is composed of three domains, including counter-flow micromixers, a T-junction droplet generator and time delay channels (TD-Cs). Water sample and bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio Fischeri (VF) are imported into the micromixers before that the droplet generator encapsulates them inside aqueous droplets separated by air. Air flow is the disperse medium, which can guarantee sufficient oxygen supply for the cells in droplets. The system shows high reliability and stability through numerical and experimental investigations.

Abstract: This paper presents two biomedical microsystems for blood cell counting, designed and built through MultiMEMS Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) service and the microBUILDER European project. Dies mm in size, made of a micromachined glass-silicon-glass triple stack, host two new kinds of multiple micro-counters, suitable to investigate the feasibility of blood cell differential analysis by means of Coulter principle in a monolithic lab-on-a-chip, which integrates a microfluidic network, sensing metal electrodes and light-guiding structures. Within these devices, impedance method gains some innovative features, both from microsystem technology itself (low consumptions of chemicals, better analytical performances, low dead volumes in multifunctional interconnected networks, parallel high-throughput processing, low-cost mass production) and from new project solutions: self-aligning illumination allows to use compact external sources (i.e, LEDs) and requires no delicate optics. Different working set-ups (ranging from series with fixed control volume to parallel differential) can be achieved by adding only few external components. It is finally possible to combine electrical and optical measurements, oriented to multi-feature classification of cell sub-populations.