National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) last week awarded a Small Business Innovation and Research grant to Antigen Discovery Inc. (ADi) to develop a fully integrated microfluidic immunodiagnostic platform with collaborators at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at University of California, Irvine (UCI).
The joint effort will combine the advantages of ADi’s protein microarray technology and large library of infectious disease serodiagnostic antigens with a novel air-liquid cavity acoustic transducer (ALCAT) technology pioneered by the group at UCI.
“We will design and build a microfluidic polymer-based chip that utilizes ALCAT which provides the fluid actuation required for complex reagent handling in multi-step colorimetric immunoassays,” said Dr. Abraham Lee, Principle Investigator, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Micro/nano Fluidics Fundamentals Focus (MF3) Center at UCI.
“ALCAT’s versatility as a single actuation technology is an easier method for on-chip integration compared to other POC platforms that require a different actuator for each fluidic process. By incorporating novel ALCAT-based approaches into protein microarray assays, we will have the versatility and power to reduce enzymatic development times, limit production costs, and fully integrate all components into a disposable assay,” stated Lee.
The two-year, $600,000 award supports NIADS efforts to develop accurate and rapid hand-held devices for infectious disease diagnostics.
