Self-Powered Gravity Domino Microfluidics for Rapid At-Home Immunoassays with Artificial Intelligence

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Immunodiagnostics

Background:

• At-home testing for immune disorders enhances patient engagement and personalized healthcare.
• Microfluidic technology, particularly microfluidic chain reaction (MCR), has advanced self-testing capabilities.
• Existing MCR platforms require external instruments and pretreatment, limiting their at-home application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a self-powered gravity domino microfluidics (SGDM) system for precise, instrument-free at-home immunoassays.
• To enable multimode fluid modulation for streamlined, single-activation testing.
• To validate the accuracy and reliability of SGDM for autoimmune and hypersensitivity testing.

Main Methods:

• Development of a self-powered gravity domino microfluidics (SGDM) device with negative-pressure modulation for sequential reagent release.
• Integration of self-adjustable microfluidic channels for tunable flow resistance and programmable reagent distribution.
• Performance validation using antinuclear antibody profiling and allergen screening assays.
• Clinical validation across multiple centers and implementation of a deep-learning model for automated signal analysis.

Main Results:

• SGDM successfully performed immunoassays, including antinuclear antibody profiling in 45 minutes and allergen screening in 90 minutes.
• Clinical validation demonstrated high accuracy: 99.61% for antinuclear antibody detection and 98.99% for allergen identification.
• Multicenter studies confirmed consistent high accuracy (98.61%-99.17%), and AI analysis maintained over 98% accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The SGDM system offers a user-friendly, self-powered solution for accurate at-home immunoassays.
• Integration of gravity-driven flow control and AI analysis overcomes limitations of current MCR platforms.
• SGDM enables precise, reliable, and accessible testing for immune disorders and hypersensitivity reactions.