Cyberphysical Adaptation in Digital-Microfluidic Biochips

Microfluidic biochips offer an unprecedented opportunity to handle biochemical fluids on-chip for real-time clinical diagnostics using techniques such as flash chemistry. The past decade has seen significant progress in disease assessment and the recognition of target molecules using such devices; however, until recently, defects, erroneous fluidic operations, and inherent uncertainties remained a major barrier to the adoption and deployment of these devices. This paper describes recent advances in cyberphysical adaptation and a vision for a multi-layered architecture for cyberphysical microfluidic biochips. A cyberphysical design and optimization technique for gene-expression analysis and epigenetics is presented. This paper shows how technology has advanced from manipulating droplets on a chip to carrying out realistic on-chip biochemistry.