Lab on chip for life science: From medical diagnostics to food quality control

Lab-on-chip devices are revolutionizing life science research and methodologies permitting sensible molecular and cellular assays, drug screening and large-scale monitoring. Here the optimization of a multipurpose and cheap impedance-based biochip platform is reported, consisting of sensors and microfluidic components for sample delivery and detection. Such biochips were demonstrated to be suitable for medical diagnostics in both flow immunoassays for biomarker detection and migration assays on cell populations. With small modifications, similar biochips were also applied for quality control by the detection of allergens (gliadin) and pathogens.