Microfluidics is often an overlooked tool in the field of synthetic biology because designing and using microfluidic chips requires specialized knowledge. Our project, MARS (Microfluidic Applications for Research in Synbio), aims to increase the accessibility of low-cost and easy to use microfluidic systems for the synthetic biology community.

The typical design, build and fabrication flow utilized in microfluidics requires significant intellectual investment, technical agility, a high startup cost and time investment. The previous iGEM Hardware Team in conjunction with CIDAR Lab created an alternative software workflow tackling design and manufacturing barriers. What our team focused on is the implementation stage of this workflow, ensuring that synthetic biologists are able to effectively use the tools provided to them.

The main goals of MARS are to:

1. Increase accessibilty of Microfluidics
2. Design chips that are relevant to the day to day protocols in synthetic biology labs which can be used together to perform more complex protocols
3. Create and provide a standardised method of evaluating chip functionality

These three goals led to the creation of the three main branches of MARS: Microfluidics 101, the MARS Repository and Fluid Functionality. Using this end to end system, microfluidics can become a more accessible and practical tool for synthetic biologists to integrate into their labs.

Use the graphic below to navigate the the three branches of MARS and get a more in-depth look at what we have created over the summer.