Microfluidic sample preparation techniques using

This chapter will briefly cover some aspects of microfluidic sample preparation techniques in the field of proteomics with a special focus on applications using matrix-assisted laser desorption... 

Coupling a microfluidic or microfabricated system to MS appears to be fruitful for both the detection on the chip (microchip point of view) and for the MS analysis (MS point of view). On the one hand, MS is a powerful technique for on-chip detection due to its sensitivity and the amount of information it provides on the sample on the other hand, by using microfluidics prior to the MS analysis, new opportunities for the field of MS are created as it provides better MS capabilities compared to conventional sample preparation techniques. 

A major research thrust in microfluidic science and technology is the development of autonomous platforms for the extraction and purification of biological material from cells. Batch fabricated diagnostic and medical treatment units hold great potential to enable both research and healthcare advances. This article presents research focused on sample extraction and purification with an emphasis on steps taken toward miniaturizing one of the fundamental preparative techniques used in molecular biology DNA extraction and purification from a complex biological sample. After the extraction... 

Other sectors have been reached since then by the combined use of microfabrication and MS techniques, such as forensics and homeland safety. For instance, microfabrication techniques are now also used in view of the miniaturization of the mass spectrometer itself and its implementation on a microchip to kill the current paradox of combining tiny devices for sample preparation to bulky and almost room-sized instrumentation. From such ongoing development, one can expect soon the appearance of fully integrated and portable devices for on-site analysis, with both the implementation of the microfluidic-based sample preparation step and the MS analysis on a single device of a few inches in size. 

The devices based on microfluidic chip-capillary electrophoresis (microchip-CE) make use of the microfluidic chip technology for sample preparation and pretreatment prior to highly efficient separation by capillary electrophoresis using commercially available instrumentation. A list of the research and development work performed using the hyphenated microfluidic chip-CE technique is given in Table 2, showing three major areas of application. 

Finally the most important point to be noted is that microfluidic techniques should be judged as complementary to rather than a replacement for conventional techniques which will continue to have a significant role in cell sorting. Most of the successful examples in adapting microfluidic devices for cell sorting have been those in which the microfluidic device is used as either sample preparation module or downstream processing and detection module after the conventional technique has processed the sample. 

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