Researchers have invented a technique that uses inexpensive paper to make “microfluidic” devices for rapid medical diagnostics and chemical analysis.

Colored water is used to show how liquid wicks along tiny channels formed in paper using a laser, in research to develop a new technology for medical diagnostics and chemical analysis. Silica microparticles were deposited on patterned areas, allowing liquid to diffuse from one end of a channel to the other. (Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)

The innovation represents a way to enhance commercially available diagnostic devices that use paper-strip assays like those that test for diabetes and pregnancy.