Scaling down the successful concept of microfluidics/Lab-on-a-Chip a few orders of magnitude towards the nanometer domain results in structural sizes close to the dimensions of large molecules.

The aim of the Nanofluidics Flagship is to investigate, control and exploit new physico-chemical phenomena in structures with nanometer dimensions for use in high-throughput biomolecular characterization. Three main research areas can be distinguished:

• Nanofluidic physics and chemistry for biomolecular studies
• (Bio)Chemical analysis using nanofluidic structures
• Technologies for nanofluidics: bottom-up and top-down

In the consortium, the aim is to combine the best knowledge in the areas of fluid-physics, bio-physics, analytical- and single molecule chemistry with bottom-up and top-down nanofabrication.
It is expected that the expertise and knowledge generated in the Nanofluidics Flagship will find substantial applications in the related business areas of drugs discovery, screening, clinical diagnostics and new instrumentation, with an estimated world-wide turn-over of >10B$/yr. A significant involvement of the Philips company underlines the strategic value of the Flagship in the diagnostics business area.