Shrink Nanotechnologies, a provider of medical diagnostics products and sensors, and biotechnology research and development tools businesses, has filed patent applications related to its rapid prototyping system for the manufacture of microfluidic chips, or Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices.
Shrink claimed that utilising its rapid prototyping solutions, three dimensional biochips can be developed with precise specifications compared to current production methods that require many hours, day or even weeks of manual labor and expensive clean room equipment and/or robotics required to maintain a sterile environment.
Shrink added that by using its patent-pending NanoShrink polymer material, researchers can design, cut, etch and print complex structures at the macro-level and then shrink them into the tiniest LOCs used in a wide range of 2-D and 3-D cellular-based disease models, drug testing and regenerative medicine.
Mark Baum, CEO of Shrink Nanotechnologies, said: “Our inexpensive, rapid prototyping solution provides us with first-mover advantage to capitalise on the market demand for more cost-effective and scalable medical device and cellular biology prototyping tools.
“Large-scale institutions, research labs and higher education have yet to take full advantage of the benefits of LOC due to the high-cost and labor intensive process of producing these devices.”