Abstract

Microfluidics Based Cassette for Point-of-Care Molecular Diagnosis

Ruige Wu, Research Scientist, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology

Traditional molecular diagnosis usually relies on expensive commercial equipment, devices and large quantity of reagents. Moreover, the whole assay is usually very complicated and time consuming (> 1 day), which is not suitable for point-of-care diagnosis of infectious diseases. Here we present a microfluidics based handheld cassette, which integrates the following modules and functions: a) on-chip storage reagents and waste; b) metering of sample and reagents; c) blood lysis module, DNA extraction module; d) connection to PCR module and detection module; e) debubbling, mixing of reagents and sample; f) accurate fluid control with programmable valving and pumping modules. The cassette is integrated into a handheld system. The operation of cassette is very simple. A user only needs to add one drop of blood sample to the cassette, and the result will be out within 15 minutes automatically.