Paper microfluidics in bioanalysis

“... the potential of microfluidics may soon be realized via paper microfluidics and particularly how it relates to bioanalysis, healthcare, medicine and point-of-care (POC) diagnostics.” Since the pioneering work by Manz et al. nearly all areas of the chemical, biological, medicinal and agricultural sectors have integrated a microfluidic platform to examine a myriad of molecular species [1]. In fact, applications for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have proliferated at a speed reminiscent of the explosive use of microelectronics after the invention of the integrated circuit. Microfluidics is a combination of fluid mechanics, engineering, chemistry, surface science and biology (and frequently microscopy, optics,...