Point-of-Care Molecular Diagnostics

The advent of Point of Care(POC) diagnostics has been considered a significant advancement in the science and technology of human health. By reducing personal health costs, these devices provide diagnostics services such as pathogen identification, blood sample evaluation, drug tests, and cancer diagnosis, which are performed close to patient care without the engagement of laboratory centers. Consequently, POC systems are powerful tools for identifying and managing human health threats in the early stages. A topic of interest to researchers is the detection of Covid-19 through molecular tests such as PCR, which helps identify and differentiate between viral respiratory infections with the help of the target DNA’s sequence. In our lab, a microfluidic multiplex molecular diagnostic system has been designed and fabricated along with an embossing machine. In addition, the optical subsystem for real-time monitoring of PCR progress is designed and fabricated. This subsystem can automatically identify the fluid domain and present the real-time curves using image processing methods. This system can perform molecular detection of the Covid-19 virus with a limit of detection of about 100 copies per reaction within 52 minutes and an efficiency of more than 92%.

Moreover, a thermal subsystem for point-of-care molecular detection based on the polymerase chain reaction method has been designed and built for commercialization. The thermal subsystem was then optimized using experimental tests and finite element simulations, reducing the PCR test time from 79 minutes to 52 minutes. In order to create a suitable platform for performing biological tests, microfluidic chips have been designed to reduce the sample volume used, reduce the cost and facilitate the integration of the cell wall lysis process and the reproduction of hereditary material. An optical subsystem capable of detecting fluorescent radiation has also been developed for Real-time reading PCR test results. After that, the electronics subsystem coordinates the thermal and optical subsystems, and it is possible to perform a polymerase chain reaction test to evaluate the performance of the thermal subsystem. According to observations, the thermal subsystem has undergone heat cycles more accurately than a point-of-care diagnostic device and less than an accurate laboratory apparatus.