Vladimir Echeistov awarded a grant from the UMNIK Innovation Support Fund contest

The grant of the UMNIK program will be aimed at developing a portable pressure maintenance system designed for high-precision supply of reagents and samples in new generation microbiological and medical systems. It will be used as part of the control system of lab-on-a-chip devices, designed at FMN Laboratory, and will be responsible for precision supply of reagents in an automated mode.

As part of the work on the grant, the team will be developing a design and making experimental samples of the pressure maintenance system. It should be small in size and provide the ability to scale channels; the mass of the system should not exceed 500 g per channel (for analogues of world manufacturers – units of kg), the range of supported pressure should vary up to 500 mbar with high accuracy.

“Our key task is to design the system and select the optimal element base, since the pressure maintenance system, as well as the entire lab-on-a-chip, has strict requirements for miniaturization and minimization of energy consumption. We have already developed several prototypes of such systems and will continue research work with the aim of creating a working experimental model. Future plans include filing an application for registration of intellectual property rights and developing a business plan for our innovative project,” said Vladimir Echeistov.

FMN Laboratory is conducting researches in the field of microfluidics since 2016. The team has already managed to develop the technology for creating multilayer microfluidic chips with integrated valves, created a series of chips for mixing reagent microflows, designed and manufactured several prototypes of a universal laboratory control device on a chip. 

Mixing chip with two input channels for lab-on-a-chip devices developed at FMN Laboratory