nn5b07939_si_001.pdf (3.75 MB)
A Digital–Analog Microfluidic Platform for Patient-Centric Multiplexed Biomarker Diagnostics of Ultralow Volume Samples
journal contribution
posted on 2016-01-26, 00:00 authored by Francesco Piraino, Francesca Volpetti, Craig Watson, Sebastian J. MaerklMicrofluidic diagnostic
devices have the potential to transform
the practice of medicine. We engineered a multiplexed digital–analog
microfluidic platform for the rapid and highly sensitive detection
of 3–4 biomarkers in quadruplicate in 16 independent and isolated
microfluidic unit cells requiring only a single 5 μL sample.
We comprehensively characterized the platform by performing single
enzyme and digital immunoassays, achieving single molecule detection
and measured as low as ∼10 fM (330 fg/mL) GFP in buffer and
∼12 fM GFP in human serum. We applied our integrated digital
detection mechanism to multiplexed detection of 1pM anti-Ebola IgG
in human serum and were able to differentiate three common Ebola strains.
To ascertain that the device can be applied in environments beyond
clinical point-of-care settings, we developed a low-cost, portable
hardware system to control and read out the microfluidic device and
detected anti-Ebola IgG in ultralow volume whole blood samples to
levels of 100 pM in a multiplexed assay format.