image: These are paper-folding steps for fluidic manipulation. Schematics of how the paper strip in the microfluidic device is folded for each step. The arrows indicate the direction of folding. view more
Credit: Niall P. Macdonald (Dublin City University, Dublin)
Researchers devised an origami-inspired paper device as a low-cost, rapid field test for infectious diseases in resource-limited settings. Healthcare workers require low-cost, rapid field tests to help combat the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria. However, many existing tests have proven unsuitable for remote, rural communities that lack refrigeration and laboratory equipment. Jonathan Cooper and colleagues describe a paper-based, origami-inspired field device that provides rapid, high-quality, species-specific malaria diagnostics that compare favorably to laboratory assays based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Using a wax printer and hot plate, the design draws on previous work using origami folding techniques to create a paper-based device that prepares blood samples for loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), an amplification technique that is more readily applicable in the field than PCR. The authors augmented the device with microfluidic lateral flow LAMP and a detection platform that can diagnose malaria species from a finger-prick blood sample. The study also presents a double-blind, first-in-human trial in rural primary schools in the Mayuge and Apac Districts of Uganda that demonstrates that the device outperforms other established techniques, detecting malaria in 98% of infected participants, according to the authors.
Article #18-12296: "Paper-based microfluidics for DNA diagnostics of malaria in low resource underserved rural communities," by Julien Reboud et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Cooper, University of Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM; e-mail: jon.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk; Ross Barker, Communications and Public Affairs Office, University of Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM; email: ross.barker@glasgow.ac.uk
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