University of Tasmania, Australia

Integrated Microfluidic Device for the Direct Analysis of Drugs and Metabolites in Biological Fluids

Microfluidics is a highly promising platform for the analysis of drugs and metabolites in biological samples, such as blood, serum and urine as these samples can be analysed directly on-site in a highly integrated device called a micro Total Analysis System (µTAS).

This contains a complex fluidic circuit which seamlessly integrates multiple processes to allow the complete analysis of a sample. Due to the way in which multiple processes are integrated in a µTAS, they offer substantial advantages over current technology, in terms of speed, cost of analysis, portability and operator simplicity and safety. This has considerable potential benefit for Australia, specifically for the remote and rural analysis of drugs and metabolites in biological fluids and will have applications in point-of-care testing in therapeutic drug monitoring, which will improve medical treatment and the patient’s quality of life, as well as for on-site analysis in forensics for the rapid determination of illicit drugs and performance enhancing substances in our elite athletes. This project will focus on the development of a µTAS for the analysis of drugs and metabolites in biological fluids by incorporation of a matrix elimination step, on-line enrichment, reaction with a fluorescent reagent and separation by electrophoresis.