Abstract

Paper Microfluidics For The Diagnostics Of Contagious Diseases

Patrick Tabeling, Professor, ESPCI Paris Tech

The most performing techniques enabling the early diagnostics of contagious diseases rely on nucleic acid detection. Today, in developing countries, the cost and complexity of this genomic technology prevents most of the population to benefit from it. In the present work, we performed Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) isothermal reverse-transcription (RT) and Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA)of synthetic RNA strands of Ebola, HIV and dengue, using low cost paper microfluidics devices. We applied this method in a developing country (Guinea) to detect, with minimal facilities (portable detection device and freeze dried reagents on paper), the presence of Ebola virus on human RNA extracts, with sensitivity comparable to standard PCR. A multiplexed system enabling, on a paper device, the simultaneous detection of several RNA strands is discussed.