Waterproof fabrics that whisk away sweat could be the latest
application of microfluidic technology developed by bioengineers at the
University of California, Davis.
The new fabric works like human skin, forming excess sweat
into droplets that drain away by themselves, said inventor Tingrui Pan,
professor of biomedical engineering. One area of research in Pan's Micro-Nano
Innovations Laboratory at UC Davis is a field known as microfluidics, which
focuses on making "lab on a chip" devices that use tiny channels to
manipulate fluids. Pan and his colleagues are developing such systems for
applications like medical diagnostic tests.