MNMT-DUBLIN
-Micro/Nano Manufacturing-

Prof. J. Ducrée, the founding director of Ireland’s first Fraunhofer Project Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Systems at Dublin City University (DCU), was invited to give a talk on design for manufacturing for microfluidics-enabled bioassay automation. He holds a Full Professorship of Microsystems in the School of Physical Sciences at DCU. The Fraunhofer centre is a joint initiative by the Science Foundation Ireland and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. He is also an academic member of the National Centre for Sensor Research and the 3U Joint Institute of Global Health, and a principal investigator for Microfluidic Platforms at the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute since 2008.
 

In this presentation, Prof. Ducrée talked about the approach of the Fraunhofer centre to accelerate and de-risk development of microfluidics enabled solutions for bioassay automation towards high-technology-readiness levels. In a platform approach adopted from established industries, manifold applications can swiftly be derived from a single set of unit operations and design rules. This can quasi-seamlessly be scaled-up from prototyping to pilot series and eventual mass production. This strategy was explained along with the centre’s centrifugal microfluidic Lab-on-a-Disc platform which automates and multiplexes multi-step / multi-reagent bioassay protocols in a robust, user-friendly and cost-efficient manner. Prof. Ducree also talked about potential collaboration between UCD and DCU in the area of micro/nano manufacturing and mass production of polymeric microfluidic devices.