(130f) Healthcare Technology Platforms: Engineering a Cellulose Strip for Biomarker Detection

Cellulose based microfluidic devices have shown great promise as a means of affordable and reliable disease diagnostics in developing countries. Despite an increase in the published literature, innovative approaches in fabrication and design of paper fluidic devices the knowledge to address the intricacies of device design for simple to complex reaction schemes remains at a nascent stage. Such designs require a rational approach based on the precise engineering of reactions and transport phenomena which are essential to ensure the optimum performance of the biosensor. Here, we have integrated and demonstrated different rational design frameworks and in particular, we considered the effect of hydraulic resistances and accordingly tuned the device dimensions to achieve the flow rates of specified reagents. In the process, we experimentally verified remobilization behavior and modelled the flow profiles for dry reagents stored on the paper fluidic chip. By taking the available kinetic models of antibody and antigen interactions further studies were carried to see the effect of rational design approaches on reaction and transport of analytes and the collective outcome of the colorimetric signal. As on alternative procedure to either conventional standalone or cellphone based image processing techniques which may suffer due to ambient conditions, a simple RGB color sensor capable of sensing even weak signal without interference of stray light was developed. This sensor is inexpensive, robust, and provide immediate results, thereby enabling quantitation without the need of expensive image processing techniques/devices. The complete technology platform which includes test strip engineering and development of RGB sensor was used for demonstrating the colorimetric detection of Osteocalcin, a biomarker for Osteoporosis. Efforts are on way to make this paper microfluidic technology platform to be generic and used for detecting panel of biomarkers making a way for low cost and efficient sensing technologies for disease diagnosis and prognosis.