Integrated Magnetic Bead-Quantum Dot Immunoassay for Malaria Detection

Malaria persists as a disease of high morbidity and mortality due to improper diagnosis, overuse of drugs, rapidly evolving drug resistant parasites, and poor disease monitoring. The two common tests used in developing countries, microscopic examination of Glemsa slides and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), have limitations associated with variability in specificity and sensitivity, and qualitative outcome. Here we report on an immunoassay using magnetic beads for capture and quantum dots for detection of histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2). Conventional immunoassays, such as ELISA, and molecular analysis tools, such as PCR, are difficult to implement in low resource settings. Therefore, to provide a proof-of-principle of translation of this assay to low resource settings, we demonstrate HRP2 detection in an automated droplet-based microfluidic device. Droplet-based platforms have the potential to allow translation of molecular detection assays to point-of-care use in low resource settings.