Integrated Optical Microfluidic Chips for On-Site Fluorescence-Based Assays

这项研究的目标是开发集成的一次性微流控系统，用于基于荧光的分析，用于医疗点诊断和使用点环境应用。该方法将微流控芯片与使用有机光发射器和有机光伏的激发光和检测器结合在一起，形成一个紧凑而经济的医学分析工具。荧光所必需的综合滤波将使用偏振而不是光谱滤波。该集成装置将与波长无关，并有望与多种荧光染料一起用于同时检测。这项工作的智能优点在于将有机光子学和生物医学微流体相结合，实现了一种集成了微流体、有机激发源和有机探测器的经济设备，用于紧凑、一次性和定量荧光分析。这些系统将取代使用固定的、专门的显微镜进行的实验室分析，取代使用廉价的光发射器和由小分子有机物和聚合物制成的检测器的紧凑的独立设备。更广泛的影响包括广泛可用的经济型定量分析系统，用于现场检测低水平的分析物，并应用于医疗诊断、环境监测和国土防御。来自代表性不足群体的本科生将通过我们的大学罗威妇女中心和新兴民族工程师计划招收，并通过REU计划提供资金。开发的材料将被纳入我们正在进行的生物传感器和生物微机械？课程。专注于生物医学和环境应用的微流控传感器和系统。

The objective of this research is to develop integrated disposable microfluidic systems for fluorescence-based assays for point-of-care diagnostics and point-of-use environmental applications. The approach will be to combine microfluidic chips with the excitation light and detector using organic light emitters and organic photovoltaics into a single compact and economical medical assay tool. Integrated filtering which is necessary for fluorescence will be done using polarization rather than spectral filtering. The integrated device will be independent of wavelength and is expected to be used with multiple fluorescent dyes for simultaneous detection. This will miniaturize and integrate the analysis and sample manipulation capabilities.The intellectual merit of this work are in the integration of organic photonics and biomedical microfluidics to realize an economical device with integrated microfluidics, organic excitation sources, and organic detectors, for compact, disposable, and quantitative fluorescence based assays. These systems would replace laboratory-based analysis using fixed, specialized microscopes, by substituting compact, stand-alone devices using inexpensive light emitters and detectors made from small-molecule organics and polymers. Broader impacts include the widespread availability of economical quantitative analysis system for detection of low levels of analytes on-site with applications to medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and homeland defense. Undergraduate students from under-represented groups will be recruited through our universities Rowe Center for Women and the Emerging Ethnic Engineers program and funded through the REU program. Material developed will be incorporated into our ongoing course on ?Biosensors and BioMEMS? which focuses on microfluidic sensors and systems for biomedical and environmental applications.