Fig. 5: Potential workflow for microfluidic devices in molecular and functional diagnostics.

Patients are first subjected to standard molecular panels to identify known predictors. If molecular data is insufficient to make a clinical decision on patient treatment, tissues of interest would be sampled to build an organotypic model for functional drug testing. This model would be used to test several potential drugs (and drug combinations), and then compared to the patient outcome for validation. Several steps of model enrichment may be needed. Ideally, the organotypic model would lead to the identification of new biomarkers, or to a simpler model that can be integrated into the healthcare pipeline.