Dec. 11, 2003 — North Carolina State University researchers have designed a way to manipulate microscopic floating droplets on a chip — a technique that could expand the capabilities of lab-on-a-chip devices, according to a university news release.

The scientists, whose work was published in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal Nature, sought a way to circumvent the friction that can occur in typical microfluidic systems by suspending drops of water inside a fluorinated oil and using electrical voltages to allow the liquid to hover over the chip’s electrical circuits. Switching the electrodes on and off let the researchers move the droplets across the oil surface to any location on the chip, the release said.

Researchers said in addition to analyzing and characterizing chemical samples, the chip could allow them to test chemical reactions or add specific amounts of toxin to a cell to see how it takes for the cell to die.