Fully Dried Two-Dimensional Paper Network for Enzymatically Enhanced Detection of Nucleic Acid Amplicons.

Two-dimensional paper networks (2DPNs) have enabled the use of paper-based platforms to perform multistep immunoassays for detection of pathogenic diseases at the point-of-care. To date, however, detection has required the user to provide multiple signal enhancement solutions and been limited to protein targets. We solve these challenges by using mathematical equations to guide the device design of a novel 2DPN, which leverages multiple fluidic inputs to apply fully dried solutions of hydrogen peroxide, diaminobenzidine, and horseradish peroxidase signal enhancement reagents to enhance the limit-of-detection of numerous nucleic acid products.

Versatile printed microheaters to enable low-power thermal control in paper diagnostics.

As the capabilities of low-resource field testing have begun to expand to incorporate more complex diagnostic technologies, many of these devices remain tethered to large heaters requiring relatively high-power inputs. Highly efficient microheaters would enable miniaturization of devices for more economic and effective heating with high temperatures and sustained incubation. This work reports the development and application of resistive microheaters printed with nanosilver ink for improved methods of automated sample heating in paper-based point-of-care (POC) and in-field diagnostics.

Microfluidic rapid and autonomous analytical device (microRAAD) to detect HIV from whole blood samples.

While identifying acute HIV infection is critical to providing prompt treatment to HIV-positive individuals and preventing transmission, existing laboratory-based testing methods are too complex to perform at the point of care. Specifically, molecular techniques can detect HIV RNA within 8-10 days of transmission but require laboratory infrastructure for cold-chain reagent storage and extensive sample preparation performed by trained personnel. Here, we demonstrate our point-of-care microfluidic rapid and autonomous analysis device (microRAAD) that automatically detects HIV RNA from whole blood.