Review: the role of automation in improving the performance and throughput of microsample bioanalysis
Protti et al.
The finding, in our words
This review finds that coupling microsampling to automated analytical workflows can overcome most of its limitations and enable routine use in therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical toxicology studies. This matters because automation may be the critical enabler that allows microsampling to move from research into reliable decentralised diagnostic practice.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A 2025 review maps 28 microsampling devices, from dried spots and volumetric absorptive tips to upper-arm liquid capillary collectors, and names what a laboratory must control before their results are used: the haematocrit effect in non-volumetric dried samples, interstitial fluid from finger milking, volume, haemolysis and transport stability. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic ask for the same two things, a device the patient can use safely and a sample fit for the test.
Confirms urine is the second-most-applied VAMS matrix in forensics, collecting a consistent volume regardless of viscosity and enabling room-temperature storage and shipping.
This review surveyed the use of VAMS devices for analysing endogenous metabolites and biomarkers across the full analytical workflow, finding them reliable for biological analysis with improved analyte stability over liquid blood at ambient temperature and a straightforward acquisition model well suited to decentralised diagnostics.
This narrative review evaluates microsampling devices for therapeutic drug monitoring, concluding that techniques such as volumetric absorptive microsampling and dried blood spots offer reliable, less invasive alternatives to venous sampling when paired with high-sensitivity mass spectrometry, which supports implementation in routine clinical practice.
Microsampling reduces sample volume, invasiveness, logistics and biohazard risk while improving stability and enabling at-home self-sampling, yet clinical adoption remains slow and requires standardisation and harmonisation to realise its patient-centric and decentralised potential.
Thangavelu et al., Analytical science advances · source ↗