[Lab-On-A- Chip--systems for biomedical research and diagnosis]. / Lab-On-A-Chip--Systeme für Die Biomedizinische Forschung und Diagnostik.

In today's biomedical research and diagnosis, a number of substances and agents have to be checked. Frequently, plastic micro titer plates are used for this purpose as large-area test platforms. For the first time, plastic micro titer plates with 96 identical microfluidic labon-a-chip structures for simultaneous capillary electrophoresis (CE) have now been produced using microtechnical fabrication methods. Such structures are suited for e.g. the separation of biomolecules. In completely sealed microfluidic channel systems, smallest sample volumes can be processed, separated, mixed with other substances, or detected. Due to the small channel dimensions, these microfluidic systems are characterized by very small sample volumes needed.

Miniaturized instrument systems for minimally invasive diagnosis and therapy.

Microsystems technologies allow to considerably improve the functionality of existing medical instruments and produce novel devices. Using extremely miniaturized operation systems based on micro-technically processed nickel-titanium alloys, minimally invasive therapeutic interventions can be accomplished in the most sensitive parts of the human body. This has not been possible so far. Fields of use presently comprise among others minimally invasive surgery, endoscopic neurosurgery, interventional cardiology, gynaecology, urology, and ophthalmology.

[Plastic micro-tips for drug delivery]. / Mikrospitzen aus Kunststoff für die Medikamentenapplikation.

Removal or exact transfer of minimum substance volumes from reservoirs or microfluidic systems may be accomplished by means of miniaturized tips with integrated through-going capillaries. Applications in biomedical engineering, e.g. for the application of drugs, or in life sciences, e.g. equipping of microarrays, require the use of disposable plastic products for hygienic reasons and reasons of costs. For this purpose, a method to fabricate microtips out of plastic by doublesided molding has been developed at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.

Further development of microstructured culture systems and their use in tissue engineering.

The Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe aims at improving its CellChip. Its main feature is the 1 cm2 core, subdivided into 900 cubic microcontainers (300 x 300 x 300 microns). It is manufactured by injection molding using biodegradable (polylactide) as well as non-degradable (PMMA or PC) polymers. The CellChips will be modified such that membranes will be mounted at the bottom of the CellChip, thus facilitating backend processing. Furthermore, the membranes can be adapted ideally to the assay system of interest by various surface modification techniques.

Fabrication of metal and polymer microstructures.

Microelectrical discharge machining (microEDM) is an innovative manufacturing technique for producing multifunctional metal microcomponents from difficult to machine materials such as nitinol and stainless steel. In addition, the microEDM technique allows the microstructurisation of stainless steel mould inserts for low-cost mass production of components made from various types of polymers.