6. Lab-on-a-Chip-Based Point-of-Care Immunoassays

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC)-based immunoassays (IAs) are one of the most prospective IA formats for the point-of-care (POC) detection of analytes at the point-of-need as they are simple, cost-effective, and rapid. Although the conventional POC IA formats are lateral flow assay (LFA), dipstick, and electrochemical strips, the most recent LOC-based POC IA platforms incorporate microfluidic (MF) chips, paper, cellphone (CP), electrochemistry, lateral flow, and new biosensor concepts. There is an extensive need for such LOC-based POC IAs for the low-cost diagnosis of diseases in the developing countries and remote settings. They don’t require skilled analysts, expensive instruments, and costly infrastructure. The current trend is strongly inclined toward the use of smartphones (SPs) as the POC readers or smart readers. The next-generation LOC-based POC IAs would be fully-automated, low-cost, and simple to operate. They will employ novel IA concepts, strategies for prolonged reagent storage, innovative biosensors, and high-throughput multiplex detection. This chapter discussed the various LOC-based POC IAs along with the future trends and challenges toward the development of clinically-viable immunodiagnostics.