Lab-on-a-chip technology and microfluidics

This chapter presents an overview of the main topics related to microfluidics for pharmaceutical applications. It begins with a general introduction on lab-on-a-chip technology and microfluidics, in which the main definitions, concepts, and characteristics are presented. Further, the main materials and processing techniques used for the development of microfluidic systems are introduced. Finally, the most representative applications are discussed. Applications are focusing on the areas of drug development, drug delivery and diagnosis, cell-based devices, and organs-on-a-chip devices, the latest step toward whole-body models. Thus, a complete overview in the area is provided, followed by a summary and outlook on open questions and future trends.The authors thank the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - for financial support under framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013, project PTDC/EEI-SII/5582/2014 and project UID/EEA/04436/2013 by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941. Funds provided by FCT in the framework of EuroNanoMed 2016 call, Project LungChek (ENMed/0049/2016) are also gratefully acknowledged. VFC and AF also thank the FCT for the post-doctoral grants SFRH/BPD/98109/2013 and SFRH/BPD/104204/2014, respectively. Finally, the authors acknowledge funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the project MAT2016- 76039-C4-3-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) and from the Basque Government Industry Department under the ELKARTEK program