Dry-Reagent Storage for Disposable Lab-On-Card Diagnosis of Enteric Pathogens

Abstract

This paper presents a process for dry-reagent storage and handling for a microfluidic lab-on-a-card platform for point-of-care applications to identify enteric bacterial pathogens in patients presenting with acute diarrhea, with special reference to infections that might be encountered in developing countries. Three different reagents are studied: i) antibody-coated magnetic beads for pathogen capture, ii) lysis buffer for extraction of nucleic acids from the pathogens, and iii) DNA amplification of the nucleic acids by polymerase chain reaction. This presentation will report on the process of dry reagent storage, resuspension and its functionality