Themed collection Lab on a Chip Review Articles 2026

Climate change, energy demands, and health equity require rapid innovation. Autonomous microfluidic labs integrate continuous experimentation with machine learning to navigate complex experimental landscapes, dramatically accelerating discovery.

Lab-on-a-chip (LoC) technology revolutionizes biomarker detection by integrating multiple analytical functions into a single, miniaturized platform, enabling efficient and versatile application across diverse scenarios.

ALS causes degeneration of the corticomotor system. Developing effective in vitro models of this complex disease requires careful selection of cell sources and thoughtful model design to achieve reliable experimental outcomes. Created with BioRender.

This review offers a practical guide to designing microfluidic systems for wearable biosensors, covering materials, fabrication, and fluid handling, with emphasis on challenges of wearable formats such as flexibility and biocompatibility.

This review comprehensively summarizes working mechanisms of various microfluidic shape-based separation for cells and particles and provides future perspectives based on current challenges for biomedical and clinical applications.

CAF-driven matrix remodeling creates quantifiable transport barriers to drug delivery. Tumor-on-chip platforms enable transport phenotyping to decode and target these stromal barriers.

‘Progress of Raman systems from open-bench systems to miniaturised systems.’ Image generated with the assistance of Google Gemini.

Advances in LFAs for infectious diseases include nanomaterial engineering, CRISPR amplification, and multiplex designs for better sensitivity and quantitation. AI/ML enables smartphone-based objective analysis, despite standardization challenges, paving the way for connected PoC diagnostics.

This review discusses the current strategies and technical considerations for vascularizing organoids-on-chip, highlighting their potential to improve physiological relevance, functional performance, personalization and translational applicability.

Convergent framework for future POC cancer diagnostics aligning clinical needs (why), enabling technologies (how), and translational bridges. It integrates lab-on-chip biosensing and analytics for decentralized, early, longitudinal care.

This review summarizes the design strategies, fabrication methods and applications of multi-channel microfluidic organ-on-a-chip systems, and outlines the key challenges and future opportunities for advancing disease modeling and drug evaluation.

Progress in μPAD development from 2017 to 2025 has been comprehensively analyzed primarily focusing on diagnostic applications, including critical comments and future perspectives.

This critical review article summarises progress in the application of microfluidic technology in plant sciences over the past 20 years. Emerging trends are explored, and key research gaps are highlighted.

A comprehensive review of in-plane and out-of-plane nanopore configurations for label-free single molecule detection is discussed herein. Also reviewed is a description of varied materials for both nanopore configurations and effects on target SNR.

This review summarizes the principles, representative designs, fabrication, and applications of SlipChip, highlighting pump-free fluid manipulation and emerging roles in bioanalytical and clinical diagnostics.

This review highlights vascularized tumor-on-a-chip models as tools to mimic TME complexity, evaluating engineering advances to bridge translational gaps in screening vascular-targeting and combinatorial cancer therapies.

This review summarizes microfluidic strategies for single-cell separation and protein profiling and discusses current challenges and future directions of microfluidics-based single-cell protein analysis.

Microfluidic probes (MFPs) are an emerging class of open microfluidic devices that use hydrodynamic flow confinement (HFC) to enable precise, contact-free delivery and removal of fluids on biological surfaces.

This work reviews recent progress in wearable biosensors for disease diagnostics, highlighting interactions between biomarker biological characteristics, sensing strategies, and microfluidic methods in development of wearable biosensing platforms.

Overview of the classifications and principles of single-cell mechanical characterization methods.

Diaphragm-actuated microfluidic strategies for active sample manipulation through sensor-integrated feedback, real-time programmable gating, and multimodal data processing for actuation towards selective enrichment and activated sorting are reviewed.

The integration of microneedles (MNs) with microfluidics, microelectronics, or artificial intelligence is applied to MN-based sampling devices, biosensors and electrodes, enabling intelligent health monitoring and personalized disease management.

This review highlights principles of 3D printing for droplet microfluidic devices, showing how geometry, wetting control, and key dimensionless groups enable robust droplet generation and how scale-up preserves monodispersity in parallel arrays.

A unified framework integrating hydrodynamic, electrokinetic, and surface-controlled dispersion mechanisms reveals how microchannel geometry and interfacial design govern solute band evolution in lab-on-a-chip systems.

This review discusses recent progress in materials, fabrication methods, and sensing mechanisms for microcavity-assisted microfluidic physical sensors, and discusses future directions toward broader adoption and scalable deployment.

Recent advances in blood microfluidics have enabled rapid, precise, and cost-effective processing of whole blood. This review examines emerging microfluidic platforms categorized by sample type, including lysed blood, diluted blood, and whole blood.

We review interdisciplinary efforts to create miniature aerial systems with mid-air controllability and robotic capabilities using responsive thin-film materials.

The lymphatic system—integral to fluid balance, immune surveillance, and lipid absorption—is frequently overlooked despite its vital roles.

This review explores microfluidic thermal management mechanisms, materials, and designs. It highlights applications in device-level cooling, personal thermoregulation, and human–machine interfaces, while outlining challenges and future prospects.

A review of the unique advantages of microfluidic-based approaches in cell-therapy and manufacturing for cancer treatment and regenerative medicine.

We highlight key developments and research applications of microfluidic cells in electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems, focusing on their role as analytical tools and research platforms used to accelerate technology development.

AI-driven wearable microfluidic systems integrating mechanomedicine principles offer transformative potential for infection diagnosis and therapeutic control. They can shift infectious disease management toward prevention and personalized care.

This review details how bioinspired, structure-based strategies enable precise liquid control across 1D, 2D, and 3D spaces for targeted delivery, complex transport, and programmable interfaces.

We provide a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art paper-based microfluidic devices for wearable soft bioelectronics, emphasizing innovative materials and device designs that enable on-skin biofluid sampling, biosensing, and disease diagnostics.

Lab-on-a-chip platforms offer a powerful and versatile approach for visualizing and quantifying subsurface flow phenomena relevant to carbon capture and utilization (CCUS), enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and underground hydrogen storage (UHS).

Convergence of microfluidics, robotics, and AI to accelerate the discovery in biology.