Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
publications. I hope the diference is now clear to the reader: to qualify as a BioMEMS work,
it must contain a microtechnology contribution, as Carter did; however, it is possible to build
a microluidic system with a glass tube, a sheet of paper, or two glass plates and a spacer, as
those clever pre-BioMEMS microluidic pioneers did (Philpot in 1939 and Hannig in 1950).
he most striking feature of the table is, perhaps, that the early history of this engineering ield
is dominated by cell biologists and studies of fundamental cell biology—not by biochemists
seeking high-throughput assays as the future (our present) might have led us to believe. Should
one conclude that cell biologists are collectively more open to embrace new technologies? If
so, it announces a great future demand for cell-based microluidics. Another salient feature is
that many of these articles have not been properly acknowledged (judging by their number of
citations), whereas articles that followed in their wake that were published in higher-visibility
journals are still being cited. A third interesting feature of the table is that it puts into perspec-
tive the advances of the various subields of BioMEMS with respect to each other. For exam-
ple, the irst microluidic pattern of a biomolecule (to perform a fairly simple immunoassay)
was not reported until 1997 (by Hans Biebuyck's group in
Science
), but by then, microluidic
chips had been reported for axon guidance (1987, Bonhoefer's group), PCR (1993, Watson),
sperm research (1993, Wilding), capillary electrophoresis (1993, Manz), blood cell deformability
(1989, Sato; 1995, Barnes), and cell manipulation (1997, Harrison), so in retrospect, it seems
like Biebuyck's device
should
have been developed a few years earlier—perhaps, if that excellent
student in such and such institution had not let academia for an industry job, or funding had
not run out . . . he table, then, highlights one of the cruxes of scientiic discovery: if we could
know when the time is right to develop an invention, we would be much more eicient scientists.
Finally, the table is wonderful for relating to our dear BioMEMS ield on a personal level: this is
when you were born, this is when you entered kindergarten, this is when you got your irst job,
and here is when the Human Genome was completed.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the table over and over as much as I do!
Year
a
Merit
Reference
Image
1939, July
First.microluidic.
device.based.on.
laminar.low.
principles..First.
continuous-low.
electrophoresis.
device.
J.St.L..Philpot,.
Trans. Far. Soc.
.
35
,.38.(1940)
6
D
C
5 4 3 2 1
1
2
3 4 5
A
B
1950,
March
First.article.on.
microluidic.device.
(electrophoresis.
conined.to.a.sheet.
of.ilter.paper).
W..Grassman.and.
K. Hannig,.
Naturwissenschaften
.
37
,.397.(1950)
V
V
-
+
+
W
W
W
e
S
e
B
E
P
E
E
P
G
G
(
continued
)
