A Breakthrough in Colorimetric Lateral Flow Diagnostics: An LED-Based Handheld Thermal Contrast Reader

#biomedical-engineering #sensor #point-of-care #lateral-flow

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The biggest barriers to POC diagnostics are cost, time and performance. This holds true in both wealthy and developing countries. The COVID pandemic has shown us that while there are many promising diagnostic technologies, cheap and easy colorimetric LFAs that can be manufactured and used worldwide remained the dominant POC test despite lower performance and slower response than more costly confirmatory lab tests such as PCR. In short, there remains a need for a cheap, easy and quick test that can be offered at the POC but approaches lab based diagnostic performance (sensitivity and quantitation).  By simply adding a reading step onto colorimetric LFAs handheld LED TCA readers can fill this role in a cost-effective and scalable manner to improve POC diagnostics for seasonal, endemic and pandemic diseases worldwide. To address this we have developed a low-cost, handheld, LED-based thermal contrast assay (TCA) reader for colorimetric lateral flow assays (LFA). TCA utilizes the irradiation of LFAs and resulting temperature increases around the test line as a quantitative readout to approach ELISA sensitivities without the need for additional modalities or steps to increase sensitivity such as fluorescence or luminescence. TCA has until now been limited to more costly bench top readers for research use.  The implementation of LED-based TCA allows a cheap, robust and easy approach to dramatically improve sensitivity and quantitation of LFA diagnostics at the POC. 

Prof. John Bischof. is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and a faculty member in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. He serves as Director of both the University of Minnesota Institute for Engineering in Medicine and the NSF Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for Preservation of Biological Systems. In addition, Dr. Bischof currently holds the Medtronic-Bakken Endowed Chair for Engineering in Medicine.

Prof. Bischof is the Office of Academic Clinical Affairs (OACA) Sr. Research Advisor for Office of Discovery and Translation (ODAT) Grant Programs, a role that includes serving as faculty lead for the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, Regenerative Medicine Minnesota, and the OACA Faculty Research Development funding programs.

Prof. Bischof is an expert in thermal bioengineering, including cryobiology (low temperature biology) and hyper-thermic biology, both of which have broad application in cancer and cardiovascular therapeutics, diagnostics, and cryopreservation. His work with some of the leading biomedical and device companies has informed numerous thermal- and energy-based therapeutic device designs and operations for prostate, kidney, and pancreatic cancer, benign prostate hypertrophy, and Atrial fibrillation. His lab has also pioneered photothermal technology that allows low-sensitivity point-of-care lateral flow diagnostic assays to rival laboratory tests in performance and sensitivity at a fraction of the cost, time, and training. Finally, his lab has provided new technology and protocols for cryopreservation of organisms (zebrafish, Drosophila, and coral), tissues (including slices and organoids - pancreatic islets), and whole organs that helped launch a new NSF ERC (Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems – ATP-Bio.org).