Microfluidics for the masses

A new MIT-designed open-source website might well be the Pinterest of microfluidics. The site, Metafluidics.org, is a free repository of designs for lab-on-a-chip devices, submitted by all sorts of inventors, including trained scientists and engineers, hobbyists, students, and amateur makers. Users can browse the site for devices ranging from simple cell sorters and fluid mixers, to more complex chips that analyze ocular fluid and synthesize gene sequences.

David S. Kong, director of the MIT Media Lab's new Community Biotechnology Initiative, and his colleagues outlined the open-source platform in a paper published last week in the journal Nature Biotechnology. His coauthors are Todd Thorsen, Peter Carr, and Scott Wick of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory; Jonathan Babb and Jeremy Gam in the Department of Biological Engineering; and Ron Weiss, professor of biological engineering and of electrical engineering and computer science.