This critical review describes progress in the development and integration of fluid flow control tools in paper microfluidics.

This Review focuses on recent work in the field of paper microfluidics that specifically addresses the goal of translating the multistep processes that are characteristic of gold-standard laborator...

Laboratory-based testing does not allow for the sufficiently rapid return of data to enable optimal therapeutic monitoring of patients with metabolic diseases such as phenylketonuria (PKU). The typical turn-around time of several days for current laboratory-based testing is too slow to be practically useful for effective monitoring or optimizing therapy. This report describes the development of a rapid, paper-based, point-of-care device for phenylalanine detection using a small volume (40 μL) of whole blood. The quantitative resolution and reproducibility of this device with instrumented readout are described, together with the potential use of this device for point-of-care monitoring by PKU patients.

This critical review focuses on work to enable bioassays with visible quantitative readout in a fully-disposable device.