Ferrobotic swarms enable accessible and adaptable automated viral testing.

Expanding our global testing capacity is critical to preventing and containing pandemics. Accordingly, accessible and adaptable automated platforms that in decentralized settings perform nucleic acid amplification tests resource-efficiently are required. Pooled testing can be extremely efficient if the pooling strategy is based on local viral prevalence; however, it requires automation, small sample volume handling and feedback not available in current bulky, capital-intensive liquid handling technologies.

Methylation-Sensitive Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP): Nucleic Acid Methylation Detection through LAMP with Mobile Fluorescence Readout.

The emergence of epigenetic gene regulation and its role in disease have motivated a growing field of epigenetic diagnostics for risk assessment and screening. In particular, irregular cytosine DNA base methylation has been implicated in several diseases, yet the methods for detecting these epigenetic marks are limited to lengthy protocols requiring bulky and costly equipment. We demonstrate a simple workflow for detecting methylated CpG dinucleotides in synthetic and genomic DNA samples using methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme digestion followed by loop-mediated isothermal amplification.

Single-Domain Multiferroic Array-Addressable Terfenol-D (SMArT) Micromagnets for Programmable Single-Cell Capture and Release.

Programming magnetic fields with microscale control can enable automation at the scale of single cells ≈10 µm. Most magnetic materials provide a consistent magnetic field over time but the direction or field strength at the microscale is not easily modulated. However, magnetostrictive materials, when coupled with ferroelectric material (i.