Title: Lab on a Stick: Smartphone-ready low cost rapid live microbe detection and identification using nanocoated Micro Capillary Film
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: Overall project aim: simple, low cost detection of bacteria using an affordable new microfluidic technology Bacteria are a major subtype of microbes (or germs) that cause a range of infections and can also contaminate food and medicines during manufacturing. Tools for detecting bacteria are thus vital, but current methods are often laborious and slow, and require the use of a fully-equipped microbiology laboratory. This project will develop a new bacteria testing technology- called Lab-on-a-Stick - that makes detecting and identifying live bacteria simpler, faster and more portable at an affordable price. Ultimately Lab-on-a-Stick tests can be performed without lab equipment and read using a mobile phone camera. Technology background: Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip Research over recent decades has developed technology called "microfluidics" using tubes with dimensions smaller than 1mm, typically around 0.1-0.2 mm wide to process reagents and samples. One major aim of microfluidic research is to develop miniature tests, with advantages of the small size including faster, automatic tests and smaller samples. These are referred to as "Lab-on-a-Chip" because complex lab procedures can be performed on a tiny microchip device. However, Lab on a Chip products are expensive and difficult to manufacture and have so far been limited to specialised high value applications, and most rapid disposable tests still use a more familiar format- the dipstick- e.g. pregnancy or blood glucose tests. The great advantage of dipsticks is their extreme simplicity- just dip in sample, and wait for a colour change. Dipsticks have disadvantages, so ideally the benefits of Lab-on-a-Chip microfluidic technology should now be adapted into a dipstick form. New technology: Lab-on-a-Stick A collaboration between Reading and Loughborogh Universities led to the invention an entirely new approach -called Lab-on-a-Stick - that promises to deliver microfluidic properties with the simplicity and low cost of a dipstick. This technology exploits special properties of a novel microfluidic material previously studied by the applicant, but also adds a new modification that applies the science of nanotechnology - in other words a modification with dimensions around 1/10,000th of a millimeter. The resulting nano-modified microfluidic material has many beneficial properties, including the ability to perform 10 different tests after dipping into one sample, and as it is exceptionally transparent the tests results can be measured using a mobile phone camera. Remarkably it can still be produced at very low cost, using a simple, conventional manufacturing process, allowing cheap disposable tests that deliver the power of microfluidics. Current project objectives: Unpublished studies have already proven that the new dipstick microfluidic technology can perform three standard blood tests in a single drop of blood, and shown that bacteria testing is also feasible. This grant will build on these preliminary studies to produce fully functioning devices for detecting harmful and infectious bacteria in a smartphone-friendly dipstick format. The study will focus on developing a fundamental understanding of how to use the nanotechnology modification to perform accurate and sensitive bacteria tests using the new Lab-on-a-Stick technology platform.


Research activity codes: 4.1 DISCOVERY AND PRECLINICAL TESTING OF MARKERS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Health categories: INFECTION