Microfluidic engineering of silk fibroin biomaterial

Abstract

Microfluidics is usually defined as the technology employed for studying and manipulating tiny fluid volumes using microscale channels. The combination of microfluidics technology with biomaterials has boosted the development of bioengineered microfluidic-based platforms, tools, and bioproducts with unique properties. This combination can open up new avenues in the tissue engineering field by providing better predictive screening platforms and biomimetic environments; for fabricating micro- and nano-sized materials with advanced properties for tissue engineering applications; or for being utilized within the human body for a therapeutic task.

The use of microfluidics for developing silk fibroin-based products for biomedical applications is overviewed herein. We highlight the most recent and relevant works on this exciting area of research, providing a critical outlook on the future applications of this technology in the biomedical field.