Hybrid Microfluidic Microelectronic Sensing Systems for Early Detection of Infection and Inflammatory Disease

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The current COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how rapidly communicable diseases can spread across the globe. Undoubtedly, quickly responding to communicable disease outbreaks, whether recurring or novel, is one of the most critical challenges for researchers in all scientific areas, including those in Point-of-Care (PoC) device sensing technologies. As infection often occurs in parallel with visible symptoms, such as fever, infrared temperature sensors (i.e. PoC devices) are increasingly being used in airports, hospitals and other public places to better identify individuals at high-risk of infection. However, this is based on a known symptom - fever - and many infection cases often do not display visible symptoms. These asymptomatic cases continue to spread to others and pose a threat to public safety. In short, a novel PoC sensing technology is urgently needed to detect biomarkers associated with asymptomatic and even pre-symptomatic infection. In this research program, we will develop a novel PoC device to separate oral neutrophils (i.e. white blood cells, WBC) from saliva. These cells can then be analyzed to identify a correlation between biomarker levels, and other features of WBCs, to track infection or disease progression. This research will answer several questions: Are there any hidden symptoms of infection that can be detected using a portable PoC sensor at home? How can oral WBCs be efficiently isolated from saliva using low-cost, rapid and accurate techniques? How can the level and other physiological features of salivary WBCs be measured using reliable, easy-to-use sensing techniques? Which microfabrication technology has the capability of both mass production and fast delivery to the market in an urgent situation such as a communicable disease outbreak? Which sensing platform can be developed to study other features of WBCs in saliva to investigate their correlation with inflammatory diseases? We will address the above questions in our research program by developing a cellular interfacing system using microfluidic techniques and standard microelectronic integrated circuits, a core technology found in smartphones and computing devices. The long-term goal of this research is to develop at-home portable salivary WBCs tests for early detection of symptoms of infection and disease, so that individuals can monitor their health from home on a daily basis. The success of this research program enables us to develop sensing technology that can rapidly be adapted for future communicable disease outbreaks. Additionally, the proposed sensing technology will have proven advantages for early detection of other inflammatory diseases such as periodontitis, or for the significant number of people suffering from immunodeficiency disorders that are preventing the body from fighting disease.