Rescue Project of a Microfluidic Device for Detection of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
A biotech startup customer specializing in molecular diagnostics, approached Gener8 with a rescue project for a low-cost, fluorescence-based microfluidic cartridge to determine the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The cartridge had to be capable of performing a multiplexed assay in a semi-high throughput manner.
Challenges
- Condensing the design of a cartridge to run 8 or 16 assays simultaneously.
- Addressing inaccurate cam valve timing on the cartridge.
- Ensuring the device can work with multiple sample types (blood, oral swab, urine, and fecal matter).
- Eliminating cross-contamination between sample types.
- Designing an instrument-driven consumable containing multiple reagents (lyophilized beads, magnetic beads, wash buffers, lysis buffer, and binding buffer).
- Preventing leakage of the reagents.
Solutions
- Replacing the cam valve with sliding valves on each side with a back channel, which allowed for more precise movement and distribution of the sample between 8 or 16 wells.
- Creating hermetic connections between different halves of the device to ensure sample and detection wells were properly encapsulated.
- Using over-molded elastomers to connect different parts manufactured from different materials, which allowed for greater flexibility in design.
- Designing and developing a simple and easy-to-use cartridge for rapid detection of differential growth patterns of different bacteria from various sample matrices (blood, oral swab, urine, or fecal samples).
- Incorporating a low-cost onboard sliding valve to direct fluid for incubation, mixing, and detection.
- Implementing hydrophobic membranes to meter fluid volume and prevent contamination of the instrument.
