Nature: Future Black Technology! Handheld diagnostic laboratories provide point-of-care solutions for epidemics

Researchers at UCLA have gathered pinhead-sized magnets in a handheld, all-in-one lab kit to develop a technology that can significantly increase the speed and volume of disease detection while reducing costs and the use of
scarce supplies.

Automated testing can be easily manufactured, deployed, and performed in a timely manner at doctor's offices, health clinics, or large-scale testing sites at airports and schools in the event of any major infectious disease outbreak
.
The UCLA-led research team was motivated by the lack of equitable access to testing when only a handful of clinical laboratories were authorized to perform testing in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic
.
This technological breakthrough can help authorities better prepare
for future pandemics by decentralizing testing and maximizing the use of resources.

Dino Di Carlo, professor of bioengineering at UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering, and Sam Emaminejad, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, co-authored a study that was published this week in
the journal Nature.
The paper outlines how lab kits work and includes findings from a clinical study that used test samples
from individuals experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.
More than 100 test results using lab kits were compared to the same samples tested for COVID-19 using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based molecular diagnostics as part of
routine clinical care at the UCLA School of Health.

"Our handheld lab technology can help overcome some of the barriers to lack and access to testing, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, when disease transmission is most critical," said Sam Emaminejad.

”

By controlling a set of 1-millimeter-sized removable disks (called "iron robots") through a circuit board and transferring samples through a diagnostic process of nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT), the researchers' ultra-sensitive lab kit was able to detect the presence of genetic material from a virus — in this case, SARS-CoV-2
, which causes COVID-19.
The steps to separate, sequence, mix, and amplify test samples are automated and performed
at a miniaturized level in the kit.

"The compact design of this platform and the automated processing of samples make ensemble testing easy, you can test samples from dozens of patients at the same time, all the materials that are currently required to test only one patient," Di Carlo said.

”

By designing kits for mixed assays, the system requires much
less reagent chemistry than a single assay sample.
In the team's study, as many as 16 samples were combined and tested
simultaneously.
If the combined test shows a positive result, subsequent tests are automatically performed within the same platform until the actual positive sample
is identified.
The whole process takes 30 to 60 minutes, depending on whether there is a positive sample
.
Due to the miniaturization and combined detection capabilities of this technology, the cost of chemical reagents can be reduced by a factor of 10 to 300
.

In addition to being able to detect several diseases simultaneously, the platform offers precision and robust automation
.
For example, in a 16-sample mixing test, more than 300 laboratory operations, including mixing and sorting, were automated by iron robots, that is, more than 3,000 individual actions or drives
.
In their reliability study, the researchers showed that the iron robot can make more than 8 million drives without error
.