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This paper presents a novel architecture for a bio-detection system to reuse magnetoresistive sensors and improve its repeatability. The architecture is composed of two fixed magnetoresistive sensors, a movable biochip, a microfluidic device and two current straps. On the action of a magnetic field gradient generated by current strap, functional magnetic particles pass along the channel. Some particles are bound by a special reaction to the biochip surface, and magnetoresistive sensors on the two ends measure the number of particles of original state and subsequencial state. The signal difference of two magnetoresistive sensors reflect the number of the depletion magnetic particles captured by the biochip.

Microfluidic biochips are extensively utilized in biochemistry procedures due to their low cost, high precision and efficiency when compared to traditional laboratory procedures. Recent, computer-aided design (CAD) techniques enable a high performance in digital microfluidic biochip design. A key part in digital microfluidic biochip CAD design is the biochip placement procedure which determines the physical location for biological reactions during the physical design. For the biochip physical design, multiple objects need to be considered, such as the size of the chip and the total operation time. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization is proposed based on Markov decision processes (MDPs). The proposed method is evaluated on a set of standard biochip benchmarks. Compared to existing works, experimental results show that the total operation time, the capacity for routing and the chip size can be optimized simultaneously.

Digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) are emerging as an alternative to the cumbersome traditional laboratories for biochemical analysis. DMFBs come under micro-electro-mechanical systems and are a class of lab-on-a-chip devices. DMFBs provide automation, miniaturization and software programmability. The droplet routing algorithm determines concurrent routes for a set of droplets from their source cells to individual target cells on a DMFB. In this paper, a double deep Q-network (DDQN)-based droplet routing algorithm has been proposed. DDQN is a temporal difference-based deep reinforcement algorithm that combines Double Q-learning with a deep neural network algorithm. In the proposed work, routes for droplets are determined by DDQN, and later collisions are resolved using stalling and/or detouring. The latest arrival time of droplets arriving last at its target and cell utilization is taken as objectives for routing algorithm performance evaluation. The proposed method is evaluated on two standard benchmark suites. Simulation results show that the proposed DDQN-based droplet routing algorithm produces competitive results compared to state-of-the-art algorithms.

This paper presents a novel dielectrophoresis (DEP) device where the DEP electrodes define the channel walls. This is achieved by fabricating microfluidic channel walls from highly doped silicon so that they can also function as DEP electrodes. Compared with planar electrodes, this device increases the exhibited dielectrophoretic force on the particle, therefore decreases the applied potential and reduces the heating of the solution. A DEP device with triangle electrodes has been designed and fabricated. Compared with the other two configurations, semi-circular and square, triangle electrode presents an increased force, which can decrease the applied voltage and reduce the Joule effect. Yeast cells have been used to for testing the performance of the device.

Japanese Biotech Firm Develops Cheaper, More Efficient Biochip.

TCM Chain Clinics to be Established in Hong Kong.

General Biotech Co. Wins Taiwan's National Biotech Prize.

India's Wockhardt to Double Turnover from Biotech Products.

Moscow-based Firm Acquires Tata Group's Pharma Sector.

Biotech International Further Acquires Subsidiary.

New Medical Portal Launched in Singapore.

India's Glaxo and SmithKline to Merge by December 2001.

India's Sun Pharma Looks into Merger with Local Company.

Ranbaxy to Increase Stake in Specialty Ranbaxy Ltd.

Mitsubishi Chemical to Distribute Clinical Diagnostics in Japan.

Japanese and US Firms to Develop Drug for Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Virtek Vision to Set Up Sales and Support Center in Singapore.

HK Property Giant Ventures into Biotech.

Australia Achieves World Breakthrough in Eye Surgery.

Adult Stem Cells Give Hope to Heart Repair.

Australian Scientist Trying to Make Sense of Synesthesia.

Chinese Scientists Find DNA in Ancient Plants.

Chinese Scientist Develops Cancer Monitoring Bio-chip.

India Develops Three Varieties of Bt Cotton.

Rat Experiment Boosts Hope for Weak Heart.

Light Therapy Could Reverse Sun Damage.

New Zealand Scientists Breed Designer Mussels.

Thai Researcher Blames Fish Sauce for Sleep Deaths.

GM Sheep Produce More Milk and Wool.

Tender Beef Gene Test Developed.

Cytokine as Antibiotics Alternative for Poultry.

Human Obesity Linked to Beacon Genes.

Muscles Play Role in Cholesterol Regulation.

Chinese Scientists Develop Biochip for HCV Detection.

GM Tomato as HBV Vaccine on Trial in China.

Study Shows Good Management Reduces Diabetic Risks.

Oral Vaccine for Cholera.

Researchers Perform Brain Transplant on Rat.

Japan Develops Encapsulated Endoscope.

Supercritical Water Oxidation Unit for High Salt Concentrations Developed.

Research Shows Promise for New HIV/AIDS Drug.

Needle-free Blood Test Discovered.

Singapore Hospital Conducts Cervical Cancer Vaccine Trial.

High-intensity Ultrasound to Kill Tumors.

AmpliChip CYP450 Test—An Important Step Forward in Making Personalized Medicine a Reality.

Automating and Miniaturizing Molecular Diagnostic on a BioChip.

Blood Pressure Monitoring: State-Of-the-Art: BPro.

Nanobiotechnologies to Provide a Portable Genetic Biosensor Device.

Inzign–A Singapore-based Company with Biomedical Device Contract Manufacturing Ambitions.

Technical Paper on Microfluidic Devices—Cell Separation Technology.

The article provides a background to ShanghaiBio and its path to success.

Since 1985, the polymerse chain reaction (PCR) became very popular among the field of molecular biology. It is very powerful for amplification DNA segment and it had a variety of applications in medicinal, virus, disease, and monitoring. In this study, a simple and miniature PCR chip will be presented with an external peristaltic pump utilized to driving liquid into PCR chip.¹ The PCR chip was made of PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) and glass. The hot embossing technique was used to fabricate the micro channel on the PMMA. The copper was sputtered on the glass as the heater. The glass and PMMA were bonded by PDMS. In typically, heater temperature was 94°C for denature, 55°C for annealing, 72°C for extension. Therefore, the heaters formed three different zones of temperature along the channel that the length ration on each temperature zone was 1:1:2 for denature, annealing and extension, respectively.^2,3 For temperature control, the PID control mode was used to regulate the temperature on reaction and the DC power was as the power supplier. The thermal sensors were adhered on the heater beside the channel.

Together with our efforts of developing low-cost and high throughput DNA analysis chips based on microfluidics technologies, an automated and integrated system has been developed for real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis based on the microfluidic PCR array chips. In order to yield rapid and stable thermal cycling in liquid sample contained in biochip wells, efforts have been made on optimizing thermal cycling performance through PID control. Rapid and homogenous PCR thermal cycling has been achieved with the system. In this paper, we present the system instrumentation and its thermal cycling control.

A device, that is used for biomedical operation or safety-critical applications like point-of-care health assessment, massive parallel DNA analysis, automated drug discovery, air-quality monitoring and food-safety testing, must have the attributes like reliability, dependability and correctness. As the biochips are used for these purposes; therefore, these devices must be fault free all the time. Naturally before using these chips, they must be well tested. We are proposing a novel technique that can detect multiple faults, locate the fault positions within the biochip, as well as calculate the traversal time if the biochip is fault free. The proposed technique also highlights a new idea how to select the appropriate base node or pseudo source (start electrode). The main idea of the proposed technique is to form multiple loops with the neighboring electrode arrays and then test each loop by traversing test droplet to check whether there is any fault. If a fault is detected then the proposed technique also locates it by backtracking the test droplet. In case, no fault is detected, the biochip is fault free then the proposed technique also calculates the time to traverse the chip. The result suggests that the proposed technique is efficient and shows significant improvement to calculate fault-free biochip traversal time over existing method.