COMPAMED Innovation Forum 2021: Microfluidic components accelerate the fight against the pandemic

The pandemic clearly shows how important modern high technologies are to advance research and development - e.g. for drugs, vaccines or diagnostic devices - quickly and effectively.

The COMPAMED Innovation Forum event series addresses current medical technology challenges once a year. The dialogue between experts, users and manufacturers, highlights innovations and gives an outlook on trend topics at COMPAMED, which takes place every autumn in Düsseldorf.

Due to ongoing restrictions and precautionary measures in many European countries, the COMPAMED Innovation Forum will again take place as a digital webinar this year. The main theme of the international digital conference on June 16, 2021, is "Microfluidics for mobile diagnostics and the development and manufacture of drugs and vaccines".

Microfluidic components accelerate the speed of development

Microfluidic components allow many experiments (high-throughput screening HTS) to be carried out quickly. This makes it possible to carry out numerous tests in a very short time, e.g. to test the effectiveness of drugs or vaccines on living cells.

The speed and accuracy of the tests are achieved, among other things, by the microstructures, which allow much better control of the physical and chemical parameters, e.g. temperature, pressure or reaction time. An additional advantage of these small structures is the low consumption of reagents.

Lab-on-a-chip and chemical microreactors make mobile rapid tests possible and accelerate vaccine development

In the past year, numerous medical devices and drugs have been developed within a very short period of time. This would not have been possible without the use of microfluidic components. Devices and components such as lab-on-a-chip, mobile diagnostic devices or chemical microreactors are already helping to fight the pandemic.

The presentations at the COMPAMED Innovation Forum will show the individual aspects and possibilities of microfluidic applications. In the subsequent discussions, the users will discuss with the developers. The most recent experiences from the pandemic will also be a focus: How can we react faster and more effectively to challenges such as Covid-19 in the future and develop drugs and vaccines even more effectively and quickly?