Compact Centrifugal Microfluidics Based BWA Analyzer

描述（由申请人提供）：野外生物战剂（BWA）的快速检测对于为大规模杀伤性武器的部署提供适当的对策至关重要。现场的第一反应者需要便携式仪器（小于10公斤），能够对多种病原体（理想的810种）进行特定检测，分析时间约为1-2小时，并且不需要特殊的操作技能。有许多分析仪可用于检测液体样品中的病原体，然而，它们在该领域有效使用的主要障碍是它们没有将样品制备与检测系统集成在一起。基于分析样品中每种病原体的DNA特征的方法已被证明可提供最特异性的反应，并且可用于需要检测多种病原体的情况。核酸的分析需要一系列的分析步骤，这些步骤很难在现场便携式仪器中集成和自动化。提出了一种独特的微流控系统，集病原体分离、病原体裂解、DNA扩增和检测于一体。Nanogen的商用电子芯片阵列用于DNA的电泳积累和氟探针以及DNA的检测将被修改以包括样品制备步骤。将开发具有集成样品制备步骤的一次性DNA芯片阵列。所提出的方法建立在已开发的技术基础上，并结合了几项创新，这将确保快速开发一种新的便携式现场检测器，用于检测多种生物制剂，并将非常灵活地适应其他或新型分析物。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rapid detection of biological warfare agents (BWA) in field is critical to provide appropriate countermeasures to deployment of weapons of mass destruction. The first responders in the field need instruments which will be portable (less than 10 kg), provide specific detection of a number of pathogens (desirable 810), with analysis time of ca 1-2 hours and which will not require special skills for their operation. There are numerous analyzers available for detection of pathogens in liquid samples, however, a major obstacle for their efficient use in the field is that they do not integrate sample preparation with the detection system. The methods based on analyzing DNA characteristic for each pathogen in the sample have been shown to provide most specific response and can be used when detection of multiple agents is needed. Analysis of nucleic acids requires a series of analytical steps which are difficult to integrate and automate in a field portable instrument. A unique microfluidic system is proposed which integrates pathogen separation from complex liquid samples, pathogen lysis, amplification of DNA and detection. Nanogen's commercially available electronic chip array for electrophoretic accumulation of DNA and fluoroprobes and for detection of DNA will be modified to include sample preparation step. A disposable DNA chip array will be developed with integrated sample preparation steps. The proposed method builds on developed technology and on incorporation of several innovations which will assure a quick development of a new portable field detector for detection of multiple biological agents and will be very flexible to accommodate other or new types of analytes.