Recent Advances in Microfluidic Paper-Based Analytical Devices toward High-Throughput Screening

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (mu PADs) have become promising tools offering various analytical applications for chemical and biological assays at the point-of-care (POC). Compared to traditional microfluidic devices, mu PADs offer notable advantages; they are cost-effective, easily fabricated, disposable, and portable. Because of our better understanding and advanced engineering of mu PADs, multistep assays, high detection sensitivity, and rapid result readout have become possible, and recently developed mu PADs have gained extensive interest in parallel analyses to detect biomarkers of interest. In this review, we focus on recent developments in order to achieve mu PADs with high-throughput capability. We discuss existing fabrication techniques and designs, and we introduce and discuss current detection methods and their applications to multiplexed detection assays in relation to clinical diagnosis, drug analysis and screening, environmental monitoring, and food and beverage quality control. A summary with future perspectives for mu PADs is also presented.