Lab-on-a-chip: the future of drug development technology

The tiny "lab-on-a-chip" used for blood tests. 

A tiny lab the size of a postage stamp could be the next big thing in the search for safer anti-clotting drugs to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

The new biocompatible lab-on-a-chip, based on microfluidic chip technology, can screen hundreds of drug compounds in just a few hours, revealing their effect on blood and quickly identifying those that have the most potential for clinical use.

Monash researcher Dr Warwick Nesbitt, led the team of biochemists from the Haematology Micro-platforms group at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (ACBD), collaborating with engineers from RMIT to use the pioneering device to better understand clotting mechanisms and develop new anti-clotting drugs.

The device effectively shrinks a medical pathology laboratory onto a small chip, with automated processes that can achieve in a few minutes what could take days in a full-sized lab.  To date, very few microdevices developed were suitable for clinical or research use, because they had not been driven by insight into how blood actually behaves.

Researchers Dr Crispin Szydzik and Dr Warwick Nesbitt

“Blood is extremely sensitive to artificial surfaces and clots very easily, so blood-handling technologies must be equally sensitive,” says Dr Nesbitt.

“We’ve combined a deep understanding of the biology of blood with precision microfabrication engineering and design, to deliver a device that can work with whole blood and produce reliable results.

“We hope this powerful new tool will give researchers an edge in delivering better and safer anti-clotting treatments, to improve the health and wellbeing of millions around the world.”

Co-lead author Dr Crispin Szydzik (ACBD) said the device could mimic conditions within blood vessels, “It’s a key step towards the development of quick and efficient microsystems for pre-clinical and clinical haematology screening and diagnostics.”

The research, with co-lead author Rose Brazilek (Monash University) and collaborators from University of Melbourne, is published in Analytical Chemistry (DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b02486).