Fabricating small-scale polymeric structures for in-vitro diagnosis via daily-use tools

Abstract

This paper describes an easy-to-handle approach for creating three-dimensional millimeter-scale polymeric structures on various solid materials as a mold (soft lithography) using daily-use tools for developing in-vitro point-of-care diagnostics devices. These polymeric structures are made from UV-activated materials, adhesive tapes as the mask and UV-LED flashlight as the light source. This physical-based approach is easily operated by hand and is accessible to the less economically developing regions and home. This method provides a new tool to detect biochemicals - glucose, cholesterol, and nitrite ion in this study - in buffer solution and human serum on PDMS structures, and the results can be compared to the products in the market. This study, we believe, would provide a wide range of potential applications, such as the development of point-of-care devices and microfluidics devices, or easy-to-handle fabrication method for the developing regions as well to build "zero-cost" systems.