Instrument Technology Research Center (ITRC), one research affiliate of the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL), adopted the natural wisdom-"lotus effects" for the development of microtexture patteed biochip system for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, food safety, cosmetic analysis and water examination. The lotus plant is a symbol of cleanliness. In Chinese pROVerb: "Lotuses prefer to grow in muddy lakes, but the leaves remain clean". It is because of its self-clean property that water droplets forms on the lotus leaves without wetting the leaves. ITRC took on this nature insight and developed a microfluidic biochip system. ITRC researchers modified the micro to nano structures on the lotus leaves and made a special patteed surface on the plastic biochip where the biological fluids can form droplets and spontaneously move toward the detection area. This microtexture biochip is free from pumps and micro channels, low reagent consumption and therefore low cost. With this, water can run uphill; even blood, the tough sample can be triggered spontaneously. The development of this biochip has gained several patents from different countries. Not only for its inherent exceptional features, researchers from ITRC developed a simple, low- cost absorbance measurement device for biochemical analysis such as risk factor panels of cardiovascular diseases, methanol measurement in fake wine, antioxidant activity, artificial additives in foods, and sialic acid measurement in cosmetic products. Since its miniaturized, portable and user-friendly features, a famous Taiwan biotechnology company was attracted and requested for its technology transfer in order to evaluate its usefulness in food supplements, such as vitamin complex contributing to the human antioxidant activity. Furthermore, ITRC announced another revolution in the "multifunctional biochemical system" for general medical diagnosis. This mode product is a result of interdisciplinary cooperation. ITRC gathered young and enthusiastic researchers from mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, chemistry, medicine and physics working together to integrate the existing laboratories resources in the development of multifunctional biochemical system. Reagent and sample droplets were observed moving orderly in accordance with the programmed, low-electric-powered plastic chip with transparent microelectrodes. ITRC collaborated with professors from the National Tsing Hua University to develop this droplet managing platform, including the integration of magnetic beads manipulation to strengthen the research energy of the microfluidic chip system. The feature of reconfiguration pROVides flexibility in the liquid handling. Moreover, ITRC researchers made their best efforts to overcome the challenges of manipulating the micro to nano liter reagent volumes. They performed sophisticated cutting, merging, vortex up and down, and even triggering turbulence in a confined micro-droplet. The researchers were invited to international conferences to present their breakthrough. The two novel microfluidic lab-on-a-chip systems for point-of-care enable users to perform "liquid handling on-demands". The user can input the program of the track of droplets movement, reaction time, and then droplets will move and vigorously mix by the electric power, instead of the conventional robot arms. ITRC applied the microfluidic systems in the evaluation of cardiovascular diseases panels in measurements of triglycerides, cholesterols, HDL, LDL, as well as the assessment of kidney functions in measurements of uric acid and creatinine. These miniaturized medical devices enable people to obtain a reliable biochemical data from blood tests within 30 minutes for the rapid diagnosis, instead of going to the clinical laboratories that usually take a day to process. ITRC researchers seek to propel three goals including effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of the development of lab-on-a-chip system. They are making their efforts to fulfill the missions from NARL: to establish R&D platforms, to support the academic research, to promote the frontier science and technology. It is ITRC researchers' adherence to its mission that will help them to develop a more powerful biochip system and spread into a variety of fields in medical diagnosis, food safety, cosmetic analysis and water examination.
