Bio-inspired mammalian hair-fabricated microfluidics

The development of a simple approach for the generation of microstructures could expand opportunities in both fundamental studies and practical applications. Mammalian hair is a filamentous biomaterial which is mechanically strong, flexible, abundant, and easily harvested. Here, we demonstrate for the first time a simple generation of microfluidic channels from mammalian hairs. Our results show that hairs with different widths result in the generation of microfluidic channels with different widths. Furthermore, with different textures of hairs, the shape of microfluidic channels can be varied. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of this microfluidic channel for bioassays and microwire synthesis. We anticipate that these results could open exciting opportunities for investigating a variety of biological materials to fabricate micro/nano-structures and devices for fundamental studies, as well as applications ranging from biological analysis to materials synthesis. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.