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HJC Consulting Product Profile Award

Written by John Crabtree
HJC Consulting Product Profile Award

HJC Consulting is pleased to launch a newd90_dsc_0575-cu monthly Product Profile Award series to help give microfluidic product developers a leg up in creating awareness about current or upcoming products. The award will provide that month’s successful applicant a chance to get the word out through a product on HJC Consulting’s website and social media channels regarding their microfluidic or lab-on-a-chip product’s milestones such as a launch, revision with enhanced performance, new product research or patent publication, etc.

The profile will be awarded, free of charge, to one submission per month.  To be eligible, a profile submission must:

  • speak to the technical method of operation and capabilities of the product;
  • include imagery (photos, data, logo, etc.) for which copyright is owned;
  • be free of copyrighted, confidential or proprietary information;
  • highlight preferred applications and/or targeted market segments;
  • include details concerning:
    • (co-) developer & (co-) author email addresses, and social media addresses if desired;
    • company physical address, contact & phone number, website & media release URLs, social media addresses for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; and
  • be 300 words or less.

See examples of current blog posts for guidance.

The profile will be hosted on the HJC Consulting blog, and will be posted simultaneously through HJC Consulting’s social media accounts.  Suggestions for social media post content is also welcomed.

Please send queries or submissions via email to John Crabtree.  Successful submissions may be edited for content and length by HJC Consulting.  Unsuccessful submissions may be considered for subsequent months, if desired.

We hope to see your application soon!

2. Microfluidics Business News, 3. HJC Consulting News, 4. Miscellany

Sepsis detection via microfluidic neutrophil analysis from Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School

Written by John Crabtree
Sepsis detection via microfluidic neutrophil analysis from Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School

mgh-neutrophil-analyser-for-sepsisFascinating new research by Felix Ellett and co-authors from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) shows elegant detection of sepsis in hospital patients via microfluidic blood analysis.  The study was published recently in Nature – Biomedical Engineering and profiled by MGH and Technology Networks.

Previous research from Daniel Irimia‘s group at MGH and HMS in 2014 showed that dysfunctional behaviour of neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) correlated well with sepsis.  This current research from his and Jarone Lee‘s (MGH) groups takes the next step and uses a microfluidic device to perform the analysis.  Their 5-mm device has 4.5-µm channel filtres (to screen out red blood cells) and meandering channel networks to allow the neutrophils to leave the sample drop of blood, and be observed in the microfluidic channel network.  Discrimination by neutrophil characteristics & behaviours (such as number of neutrophils, oscillations and motionless time in microfluidic channels, migration distance and tendency to migrate back to the central sample chamber) allowed the researchers to correctly predict the presence of sepsis in over 95% of patients in a small study of 19 ICU patients.

Detection of sepsis in patients is of critical importance.  According to the MGH and TN article profiles, about one million cases of sepsis occur annually in the US, with 25% of cases being fatal.  Comparable data from the UK showed that the mortality rate for hospital admissions with severe sepsis assessed withing the first 24 hours was 45%.  Current detection methods leave much to be desired, with misdiagnosis occurring in 30% of patients.  The arrival of fast, accurate diagnostic methods would lead to better patient outcomes, likely including saved lives.

1. New Microfluidic Devices & Technology

Bullish microfluidics market projections by MarketsandMarkets

Written by John Crabtree
Bullish microfluidics market projections by MarketsandMarkets

A recent report by Markets and Markets cited in an article by The Health Star shows aggressive microfluidics product market growth predictions that exceed previous strong predictions from other research enterprises.

Markets and Markets put the 2017 market value at $8.28 B USD with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.6% forecasted until 2023.  Other research firms, however, have lower estimates of both the current market as well growth predictions for similar time spans.  Yole Dévelopment’s 2017 report, for example, estimated the 2016 market to be ~$2.1 B USD, and projected a CAGR of 18% out to 2022.  A 2017 report by Transparency Market Research put the 2016 market at $4.76 B USD and CAGR at 11.4% through 2025.  Future Market Insights’ 2017 report on the point-of-care (PoC) segment of the microfluidics market, the largest segment in their view, estimates this segment to have been $1.0 B USD in 2016, and to grow at a 14.5% CAGR until 2026.

The reason for the large differences between Markets and Markets’ estimates and those of others – roughly, 2-4x larger market values and 1.25-2x larger CAGRs – is not clear, but may be due to definition of the market scope, i.e. what products are considered “microfluidic”.

2. Microfluidics Business News