微流控技术在高等院校本科教学实验中的应用方向与路径

微流控技术起源于上世纪90年代末,目前已经在分析化学、生命科学、医学等领域得到了广泛应用,微流控技术已经逐渐成长为现场检测、即时检测、细胞/生物大分子等研究领域最为重要的研究工具。从微流控技术在高等院校中的实际应用情况看,绝大多数的应用场景仍处在科研实验室中,生物、化学、微电子、机械等相关学科本科阶段学生尚无机会接触和学习到微流控技术,在微流控技术广泛应用的大背景下,亟需将微流控及其相关技术融入本科生的教学实验中,对于拓宽学生的交叉学科视野具有重要作用。经过近二十年的发展,各类加工方法简单易行且成本低廉的微流控芯片相继出现,为将微流控技术引入本科阶段教学实验创造了基本条件。文章首先对微流控技术在国外高校本科教学实验中的应用情况进行了介绍,之后着重探讨了几种可能的将微流控技术应用于生物、化学、微电子等专业教学实验的方法与路径。

The origin of microfluidics can be dated back to late 90s, up to now, microfluidics has been widely used in analytical chemistry, life science and medicine, and microfluidics has become one of the most important tools in cell biology and molecular biology. In a review of the current applications of microfluidics in higher education, most of the cases were aimed at research in certain area, microfluidics has been rarely used in the teaching experiments for undergraduate students in biological, chemical, electrical and mechanical majors. The integration of microfluidics in teaching experiments is of great importance to broaden students' horizons. After 20 years' development, lots of low-cost protocols have been invented by various researchers, which could be used for the integration of microfluidics in teaching experiments for undergraduate students. In this study, a brief review was provided for the current integration of microfluidics in teaching experiments in foreign countries, then a detailed discussion was provided for the possible protocols of integrating microfluidics in undergraduate teaching experiments.