Rapid and Automated Detection of Six Contaminants in Milk Using a Centrifugal Microfluidic Platform with Two Rotation Axes.

Antibiotic residues and illegal additives are among the most common contaminants in milk and other dairy products, and they have become essential public health concerns. To ensure the safety of milk, rapid and convenient screening methods are highly desired. Here, we integrated microarray technology into a microfluidic device to achieve rapid, sensitive, and fully automated detection of chloramphenicol, tetracyclines, enrofloxacin, cephalexin, sulfonamides, and melamine in milk on a centrifugal microfluidic platform with two rotation axes.

A novel electromagnet-triggered pillar valve and its application in immunoassay on a centrifugal platform.

The lab-on-a-disc is a powerful microfluidic platform that skillfully takes advantage of centrifugal force to controllably drive liquids with the assistance of passive or active valves. However, the passive valves are mainly triggered by the rotation speed and can be easily influenced by the surface chemistry of the channel, while the active valves usually require a complicated fabrication or actuation procedure. In this study, a novel active valve that can be easily triggered by an electromagnet was proposed and applied on the centrifugation platform.

Enhancing the Sensitivity of Lateral Flow Immunoassay by Centrifugation-Assisted Flow Control.

Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) is widely used but is limited by its sensitivity. In this study, a novel centrifugation-assisted lateral flow immunoassay (CLFIA) was proposed that had enhanced sensitivity compared to traditional LFIA based on test strips. For CLFIA, a vaulted piece of nitrocellulose membrane was prepared and inserted into a centrifugal disc.

Sensitive and rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria from urine samples using multiplex recombinase polymerase amplification.

Bacterial infections may cause severe diseases such as tuberculosis, sepsis, nephritis and cystitis. The rapid and sensitive detection of bacteria is a prerequisite for the treatment of these diseases. The current gold standard for bacterial identification is bacteriological culture.

Rapid detection of four mycotoxins in corn using a microfluidics and microarray-based immunoassay system.

Mycotoxins threaten human health seriously because they usually exist in food, fodder and commodities. In this study, a rapid and sensitive immunoassay system for commonly encountered mycotoxins was established based on microfluidics and protein microarrays. Four mycotoxins (T-2 toxin, aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A, and zearalenone) can be automatically detected in a custom-made microdevice within 30 min under the assistance of a prototype of the instrument with a fluid control system and an imaging system.

Comprehensive Study of the Flow Control Strategy in a Wirelessly Charged Centrifugal Microfluidic Platform with Two Rotation Axes.

Centrifugal microfluidics has been widely applied in the sample-in-answer-out systems for the analyses of nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules. However, the inherent characteristic of unidirectional fluid propulsion limits the flexibility of these fluidic chips. Providing an extra degree of freedom to allow the unconstrained and reversible pumping of liquid is an effective strategy to address this limitation.

Multiplex detection of bacteria on an integrated centrifugal disk using bead-beating lysis and loop-mediated amplification.

Although culture-based identification of bacteria is the gold-standard for the diagnosis of infectious diseases, it is time consuming. Recent advances in molecular diagnostics and microfluidic technologies have opened up new avenues for rapid detection of bacteria. Here, we describe a centrifugal-microfluidic chip for the detection of bacteria by integrating the cell lysis, clarification, and loop-mediated amplification (LAMP).