Integrated Electrochemical Dopamine Sensing with Finger Priming Pump on a Chip

Development in microfluidic technology has contributed to increased understanding in neural tissue engineering through the in vitro observation of cell-on-chip (CoC) systems. This has been further helped by the integration with the broader MEMS (micro mechanical and electromechanical systems) technology that offers external devices such as detectors or biosensors to show the characteristics of the observed object. An on-chip microsystem microfluidic platform for dopamine detection is presented here. The microfluidic platform integrates electrochemical detection with finger pumping and a valve system as means to control the fluid flow. This microenvironment offers a quicker result in observing the phenomena related to the neural cell activities with a relatively small specimen volume of 50-100 μL, eases the handling of movement, and consequently reduces the cost of consumable items. The microfluidic platform presented here showed that the pump module that also serves as a mixing point was able to deliver at maximum of 121.36 μL with 2-3 strokes of normal finger pressure priming. A series of valves aids in the termination or isolation of fluid flow in a specific zone for further processing. Ultimately, the microfluidic platform is also equipped with a portable electrochemical detection module that allows us to measure the dopamine concentration up to 1 mM.