One of the advantages of Lab on a Disc (LoD), compared to Lab on a Chip (LoC), is the use of centrifugal forces to move liquids within the chambers and microchannels; eliminating the need of external mechanical pumps (e.g., syringe pump) and piping networks for the automatization of bioanalytical assays. However, the centrifugal force is unidirectional and therefore liquids can only be displaced from the center to the edge of the disc. This prevents the possibility of utilizing all the available space in the disc for the implementation of a complex microfluidic process. To overcome this limitation, we developed an electrolysis system to induce a pneumatic force to move liquids towards the center of a spinning disc or against the direction of centrifugal force. We developed a microfluidic disc that contains a series of electrolysis pumps and peptide microarrays to automate a multiplexed immunoassay for the detection of different antibodies e.g., Ha and anti-flag antibodies. The pumps on this centrifugal microfluidic platform are powered and controlled wirelessly using the electronics-LoD [1]. In general, the develop pumping system allows for the best use of the limited space of microfluidic disc and the automation of complex bioanalytical process for point of care applications.

[1] S.M.T. Delgado, D.J. Kinahan, F.S. Sandoval, L.A.N. Julius, N.A. Kilcawley, J. Ducrée, D. Mager, Fully automated chemiluminescence detection using an electrified-Lab-on-a-Disc (eLoaD) platform, Lab Chip. 16 (2016) 4002–4011. doi:10.1039/C6LC00973E.