A lab-on-a-chip is an instrument that uses very small amounts of fluid on a microchip to carry out certain laboratory tests. That is the National Cancer Institute’s definition. The NCI adds that these devices can use body fluids, or solutions containing cells or cell parts, to help diagnose disease, and it lists “microfluidic device” as an alternate name.
Lab-on-a-chip vs. microfluidics
The two terms overlap but are not identical. Microfluidics is the broader field: controlling fluids at very small scales. A lab-on-a-chip applies that field to shrink laboratory operations onto a chip, and sometimes to combine several of them in one device. A 2010 review in Chemical Society Reviews by Mark and colleagues describes the aim as miniaturizing, integrating, automating or parallelizing biochemical assays.
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It is also not one standardized instrument. Platforms differ in how they move fluid, how they process a sample and how they detect a result. How much of a laboratory workflow a chip integrates depends on its design.
What a lab-on-a-chip can do
Reviews describe a range of uses. They include diagnostic testing, single-cell analysis, hematology and vascular-biology research, and drug-discovery research. A 2024 review, “Next generation microfluidics: fulfilling the promise of lab-on-a-chip technologies,” highlights basic, preclinical and clinical research. A 2020 review covers lab-on-a-chip technologies at the single-cell level for separation, analysis and diagnostics.
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- Do not push samples into the chip manually. Under normal use, keep pressure ≤ 2 bar and maximum flow rate ≤ 2 ml/min. Exceeding these parameters will cause permanent damage to the chip.
These are examples from the field. No single device is claimed to do all of them.
Stages an integrated system may include
A 2016 review of lab-on-chip systems for integrated bioanalysis lists the stages such a system can involve:
- fluid handling;
- molecular recognition;
- conversion of that recognition into a measurable signal;
- sample preparation;
- signal amplification.
A given chip may include only some of them.
How platforms differ
The 2010 review surveys several distinct implementation approaches:
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- linearly actuated devices;
- pressure-driven laminar flow;
- microfluidic large-scale integration;
- segmented-flow systems;
- centrifugal microfluidics;
- electrokinetics;
- electrowetting;
- surface-acoustic-wave systems;
- platforms for massively parallel analysis.
These are different technical approaches, not interchangeable labels.
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How to compare lab-on-a-chip systems
No platform is best in the abstract. Start with the sample and the assay you need, then compare the platforms on these points, which come from the same 2010 review:
- portability, and where the test has to run;
- instrument cost and disposable cost;
- sample throughput and the number of parameters measured per sample;
- reagent consumption and precision;
- which fluid-handling operations the chip can perform;
- whether the protocol is programmable or fixed.
Limits to keep in mind
The 2024 review names accessibility, usability and manufacturability as areas that need improvement. It also discusses obstacles to translation and clinical use. The 2020 single-cell review similarly describes shortfalls in field application and real-world translation.
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A small chip does not show that a test is validated, approved or suitable for clinical decisions. Those questions depend on the specific test and on evidence about it.
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