Self-powered integrated microfluidic point-of-care low-cost enabling (SIMPLE) chip

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Molecular Diagnostics
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Point-of-care diagnostics require portable, low-cost, quantitative nucleic acid detection.
• Current polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods are often time-consuming and require expensive equipment, limiting their use in resource-limited settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated microfluidic diagnostic device for on-site quantitative nucleic acid detection directly from blood.
• To eliminate the need for separate sample preparation steps and external equipment.

Main Methods:

• Developed an integrated microfluidic chip with prepatterned magnesium acetate (MgOAc) for digital nucleic acid amplification.
• Implemented autonomous plasma separation into 224 microwells without hemolysis.
• Integrated a self-powered microfluidic pumping system using a vacuum battery on the chip.

Main Results:

• Achieved rapid quantitative digital nucleic acid detection directly from human blood samples.
• Detected methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) DNA within a range of 10 to 10⁵ copies per microliter.
• Demonstrated results in approximately 30 minutes using isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification.

Conclusions:

• The developed autonomous, portable lab-on-chip technology enables rapid, low-cost molecular diagnostic assays.
• This technology holds promise for future point-of-care diagnostics, especially in settings with limited resources.
• The integrated device simplifies sample preparation and amplification, making molecular diagnostics more accessible.