Abstract

Manufacturable Microfluidic Devices – Fine Tuning the Biochemistry and Fabrication

Rosanne Guijt, Professor, Smart Sensing, Deakin University

Manufacturability is one of the bottlenecks in the development of commercially viable microfluidic systems. As part of the development of a sample in/answer out assay for the detection of Avian influenza (H1N1) as example, different strategies were used to aid manufacturability. To simplify hardware and minimize thermal stress, isothermal amplification strategies were preferred, and Nucleic Acid Sequence Based Amplification (NASBA) was selected as amplification process because of its high fidelity in replicating RNA. Despite the isothermal amplification at 42C, this is preceded by a thermal annealing step >60C. Chemical and biochemical approaches of circumventing this thermal denaturation step will be compared. The simplified assay uses an external heater, moving magnet for RNA transport and LED induced fluorescence detection, all accessing eh amplification chamber. To minimize geometrical constraint, a dedicated mould was designed for injection moulding of a smooth and straight surface, facilitating side illumination. The described assay facilitated the detection of H1N1 down to ct28.