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Fast Disease Diagnosis
....Recently, microfabrication
of miniature fluidic devices has attracted considerable
interest and made substantial impacts. One of the most
promising applications is chemical and biomedical analysis.
The objective of the study is to design and fabricate
a "Hand-held DNA microchip system" using enabling MEMS
(Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System) and nanotechnology
to execute several critical procedures for DNA extraction,
amplification and strain identification, specifically
on the application of bacterial infectious diseases.
....Platform technologies
and microchip systems capable of performing similar
procedures done in a traditional lab will be developed
in the 3-year project. Subsequent procedures such as
cell culture, cell lysis, DNA extraction, DNA amplification,
identification and detection will be automatically executed
on a single-cell level with a high-throughput fashion.
If successful, it will be possible to replace tedious
labor-intensive procedures for DNA studies and the concept,
"Lab-on-a-chip", will become feasible and handy.
....The outcomes of the
proposed study will be a rapid and efficient platform
technology to identify infectious bacteria, which is
in great needs. We will design and fabricate an integrated
DNA microchip system for diagnosis of bacterial infectious
diseases. Several innovative micromachined modules will
be proposed and integrated to execute accurate and rapid
identification of infectious bacteria. Starting from
sampling of small amounts of bacteria, we will execute
what we have done in a regular bio-analytical lab on
a small chip with minimum human intervention. These
micro modules will include at least, but not limited
to (1) cell culture module, (2) micro flow cytometry
(for cell counting and sorting), (3) cell manipulation
and transportation module, (4) cell lysis module, (5)
micro PCR (polymerase chain reaction) module, (6) microchip
electrophoresis module and (7) optical detection module.
With this approach, we anticipate revolutionary technologies
for fast detection of infectious diseases are feasible
in the near future.
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