Microfluidics has so far been used in mostly large-scale, automated pharma and biotech projects, such as nucleic acid and protein separation. Miniaturizing fluid flow to the micrometer-to-millimeter scale offers plenty of advantages for studying cells and small organisms. Biologic-scale microfluidic devices can mimic many in vivo situations, such as laminar blood flow through a capillary or the three-dimensional structures that culture plates can't capture. Such systems can also help researchers to use scarce primary cells and expensive reagents more efficiently.
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