Miniaturized and Integrated Microfluidic Platforms for Rapid Pathogen Detection and Its Application in Medical Diagnosis, Food Safety and Animal Disease

Abstract

We explores the development and application of miniaturized and integrated microfluidic platforms for rapid pathogen detection, addressing critical needs in medical diagnosis, food safety, and animal disease monitoring. Traditional detection methods, while accurate, are often slow, expensive, and require centralized laboratories, limiting their use in point-of-care (POC) and resource-limited settings.

We focuses on the convergence of three key technologies: microfluidic ”lab-on-a-chip” systems, isothermal nucleic acid amplification techniques (INAATs) like loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and miniaturized optical detection modules. By integrating these components, we have engineered several novel diagnostic platforms.

First is a pocket-sized, smartphone-controlled RT-LAMP system for ultrafast nucleic acid testing, demonstrating high sensitivity and specificity for detecting foodborne pathogens like Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus directly from complex samples.

Furthermore, a microfluidic PCR chip system was developed for the multiplexed, on-site detection of major swine disease viruses, significantly reducing detection time from days to under an hour. Systematic optimizations to the thermal management and optical systems of this platforms have led to the creation of one of the world’s fastest microfluidic PCR systems, capable of completing 45 thermal cycles in just 22 min. The clinical and practical utility of these devices was validated through rigorous testing with real-world samples, showing excellent correlation with gold-standard laboratory methods.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Supervisor	Weijia Wen (Supervisor) & Bingpu Zhou (Supervisor)