Work

Instrument-free nucleic acid amplification assays for global health settings

Year: 2011

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Many infectious diseases that affect global health are most accurately diagnosed through nucleic acid amplification and detection. However, existing nucleic acid amplification tests are too expensive and complex for most low-resource settings. The small numbers of centralized laboratories that exist in developing countries tend to be in urban areas and primarily cater to the affluent. In contrast, rural area health care facilities commonly have only basic equipment and health workers have limited training and little ability to maintain equipment and handle reagents.1 Reliable electric power is a common infrastructure shortfall. In this paper, we discuss a practical approach to the design and development of non-instrumented molecular diagnostic tests that exploit the benefits of isothermal amplification strategies. We identify modular instrument-free technologies for sample collection, sample preparation, amplification, heating, and detection. By appropriately selecting and integrating these instrument-free modules, we envision development of an easy to use, infrastructure independent diagnostic test that will enable increased use of highly accurate molecular diagnostics at the point of care in low-resource settings.

Source: Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

DOI: 10.1117/12.882868

Authors: Paul LaBarre, David Boyle, Kenneth Hawkins, Bernhard Weigl

Institution: Program for Appropriate Technology in Health

Language: English

Topic: Biosensors and Analytical Detection

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering