Biofluidics

Biofluidics is an interdisciplinary field that studies the behavior, control, and manipulation of biological fluids at micro- to nano-scale. It combines fluid mechanics, biology, chemistry, and engineering to design devices and processes that handle small volumes of fluids such as blood, saliva, urine, and interstitial fluid. Biofluidic systems frequently employ microfluidics and nanofluidics to perform tasks such as mixing, separation, detection, and reaction in a controlled, miniaturized environment.

Key technologies include microfabrication techniques to create channels and chambers in materials such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), glass, and thermoplastics; lab-on-a-chip platforms; droplet-based microfluidics for compartmentalization; and digital microfluidics that manipulate discrete droplets on a surface. Driving forces include electrokinetic methods (electroosmosis, electrophoresis), pressure-driven flow, and acoustofluidic actuation.

Applications span point-of-care diagnostics and rapid medical testing, high-throughput screening, organ-on-a-chip models for drug discovery and disease research, biosensing, and integrated sample preparation. In research and industry, biofluidics supports environmental monitoring, food safety assays, and personalized medicine through automated, compact analytical systems.

Challenges include biocompatibility and biofouling, standardization and reproducibility, integration with electronics and data systems, regulatory validation, and scaling from chip prototypes to clinical use. The field emerged from microfluidics and bioengineering in the late 20th century and continues to evolve toward fully integrated, automated, and patient-centered technologies.