Low-High-Low Rotationally Pulse-Actuated Serial Dissolvable Film Valves Applied to Solid Phase Extraction and LAMP Isothermal Amplification for Plant Pathogen Detection on a Lab-on-a-Disc.

The ability of the centrifugal Lab-on-a-Disc (LoaD) platform to closely mimic the "on bench" liquid handling steps (laboratory unit operations (LUOs)) such as metering, mixing, and aliquoting supports on-disc automation of bioassay without the need for extensive biological optimization. Thus, well-established bioassays, normally conducted manually using pipettes or using liquid handling robots, can be relatively easily automated in self-contained microfluidic chips suitable for use in point-of-care or point-of-use settings. The LoaD's ease of automation is largely dependent on valves that can control liquid movement on the rotating disc.