Point-of-care diagnostic bioMEMS based on volume monolithic microelectronic wafer fabrication

该NSERC战略项目提案来自舍布鲁克大学（UdeS）和阿尔伯塔大学（UofA）电气和计算机工程系（ECE）以及DALSA半导体（Bromont，QC）的研究人员，旨在开发高度集成的基于微芯片的系统，用于执行整个医疗保健和生命科学诊断，从样品制备和DNA扩增到蛋白质检测和电泳。在开发这种基于微流体的分析系统方面已经做了很多工作，这些系统被不同地称为微全分析系统（uTAS）、“芯片上实验室”或BioMEMS系统。然而，到目前为止，大多数努力通常依赖于广泛的（和昂贵的）外部仪器，相对较少的功能直接集成到芯片本身。在最近的工作中，我们已经生产出基于微流控芯片的高度集成的医疗诊断原型，这些原型能够显著降低医疗诊断的成本。本提案的目标是简化现有的外部仪器，并将其直接集成到微流体芯片上，以生产单芯片BioMEMS独立生命科学诊断平台。我们预计，由此产生的单芯片诊断系统将大大降低这些技术的成本，使它们能够用于医疗保健。从商业角度来看，DALSA半导体与UofA/UdeS之间的战略合作伙伴关系将转化为DALSA半导体具有全球竞争力的技术，并进一步推动加拿大成为世界舞台上该领域的主要参与者。

This NSERC Strategic project proposal from researchers at the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the Universities of Sherbrooke (UdeS) and Alberta (UofA) and DALSA Semiconducteur (Bromont, QC), aims at developing highly integrated microchip-based systems for performing entire health care and life science diagnostics, from sample preparation and DNA amplification to protein detection and electrophoresis. Much work has been done in developing such microfluidics-based analysis system, variously termed micro-total-analysis-systems (uTAS), "lab on a chip", or BioMEMS systems. To date, however, most efforts have typically relied upon extensive (and expensive) external instrumentation, with comparatively little functionality integrated directly onto the chip itself. In recent work we have produced highly integrated medical diagnostic prototypes based on microfluidic chips and these enable a very significant decrease in the cost of medical diagnostics. The goal of the present proposal is to miniaturize existing external instrumentation and integrate it directly onto a microfluidic chip, in order to produce a single chip BioMEMS standalone life sciences diagnostic platform. We expect that the resulting single-chip diagnostic systems will produce a dramatic decrease in the cost of these technologies, making them accessible to healthcare. From a commercial standpoint, this strategic partnership between DALSA Semiconducteur and UofA/UdeS will translate into globally competitive technologies at DALSA Semiconducteur and further contribute to making Canada a major player in this area on the world stage.