Micro Chemistry Chip Could Remake Testing

Technology from SFC Fluidics LLC, a client of Fayetteville’s Virtual Incubation Co., has received patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and has more pending through research partner, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for its magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) process.

Micro fluidics is the technology of controlling fluid flow through micro channels, or an extremely small amount of space.

One application of MHD microfluidic technology could be used for on-the-spot blood analysis that would benefit everyone from soldiers on a battlefield to doctors looking to screen for diseases, Calvin Goforth, VIC’s president, said.

The company has already received one Phase I small business innovation research award from NASA valued at $70,000 and is applying for a Phase II SBIR on July 19, valued at $600,000.

Goforth called the technology a “laboratory on a chip.” A blood or saliva sample, he said, could be taken in a doctor’s office and set on the MHD fluidics chip, which is about the size of a soda cracker. Then the chip could be plugged into an analyzer the size of a lap top computer. Common tests, such as cholesterol checks, could be done in minutes versus the days it takes now to get results back from a lab. The used chip would even be inexpensive enough to discard, Goforth said.

Fluidics could cut down mislabeled and lost samples as well, Goforth said.

SFC’s work with micro fluidics is analogous to chemistry what microchips were to the electronics industry when vacuum tubes fell by the wayside, he said.

But the doctor’s office is only one segment of the fluidics market, he said. Other potential scientific applications include DNA/RNA sizing and separation, gene expression profiling, clinical chemistry and diagnostics. In other words, the technology could help a wide variety of scientists with biomedical research.

SFC has exclusive licensing from the University of Arkansas and Lawrence Livermore. The company also has an active collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania for parts of the technology.

Ingrid Fritsch is the chief technology officer and the inventor of key MHD technology.