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Lateral flow card for Point-of-Care COVID-19 antibody testing

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Rapid, low-cost and reliable device that can collect whole blood and transfer plasma into assay chamber for antibody testing.

Project Overview

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a highly infectious pathogen from the coronavirus family has been threatening humanity by rapidly spreading worldwide, putting a spotlight on the essential role of point-of-care (POC) biosensors for public health. Widespread serological testing to measure immunity of individuals is one of the major requirements in a public health emergency. However, due to the inadequate availability of reliable POC antibody tests, central clinical laboratories have been overwhelmed and cannot satisfy the demand for widespread serologic testing, which has been significantly hindering the appropriate management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever, there is an urgent need for inexpensive analytical platforms that can rapidly quantify disease biomarkers and reliably provide medical feedback at the point of care.

One of the bottlenecks in POC sensors is the lack of rapid, reliable and low-cost microfluidic lateral flow cartridges. The expectation from this project is to design a lateral flow card (LFC) to be assembled onto nanophotonic biosensors (chip area=1 cm2, thickness=0.5 um) that are developed in Yesilkoy Lab for POC serologic tests. The final LFC should take a small quantity (40–50 μL) of whole blood from a finger prick, separate plasma from whole blood within minutes (less than 5 mins) and transfer the sample into the measurement chamber where the quantitative essay will take place. The total cost of the cartridge should not exceed 5$ in the final manufacturing and 50$ in the research & development phase.

Team Picture

Left to right: Nicole Parmenter (BPAG), Cole Kaneski (Co-BWIG), Katerina Smereka (BSAC), Cate Flynn (Communicator), Tim Tran (Co-BWIG), Dhruv Biswas (Leader)
Left to right: Nicole Parmenter (BPAG), Cole Kaneski (Co-BWIG), Katerina Smereka (BSAC), Cate Flynn (Communicator), Tim Tran (Co-BWIG), Dhruv Biswas (Leader)

Contact Information

Team Members

  • Dhruv Biswas - Team Leader
  • Cate Flynn - Communicator
  • Katerina Smereka - BSAC
  • Cole Kaneski - Co-BWIG
  • Tim Tran - Co-BWIG
  • Nicole Parmenter - BPAG

Advisor and Client

  • Dr. Tongcheng Qian - Advisor
  • Prof. Filiz Yesilkoy - Client

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