Lab-on-a-Chip Devices

Lab-on-a-Chip Devices

I am going to be providing more news on nanotechnology for my Biomedical friends.  I love this space. So here is a new development.  If you are unfamiliar with terms I will provide them to you moving forward and you can always search "nano" or "biomedical" to find them on the blog. 

 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has pushed the envelope by creating a multi-nozzle nanoelectro-spray emitter array. This is an interface to mass spectrometers and lab-on-a-chip devices.  What does this mean -  they can now perform high-throughput screening for proteomics (study of proteins).  It is made of lithographically produced (printed) emitters.  These have arrays of parallel silica nozzles mounted in silicon with a packing density of 100 nozzles per mm.  WOW - thats huge. 

 

For the non-medically enclined...

Proteomics is the large scale study of proteins. The term Proteomics is the next step in the study of biological systems, after genomics- the study of genes. The study of genes remains constant whiel proteome varies from cell to cell. I tis always changing through its biochemical interactions with the genome and its' environment.  So you can now see how sticking 100 nozzles in a mm to study their ever chainging state is a large breakthrough for this space.