Love wave fully integrated Lab-on-Chip platform for food pathogen
ACRONYM:
LOVEFOOD
LEADER:
Angeliki Tserepi
START DATE:
01/09/2012
LATE DATE:
28/02/2016
FUNDING SOURCE:
EUROPEAN COMMISSION, FP7
The LOVEFOOD project developed a fully integrated lab-on-chip microsystem platform, performing multimodal analysis of several analytes based on nucleic acid detection. The system allows, after a short prior culture, the identification in one single run of a multiplicity of pathogens and their specific sequences. The heart of this system is an acoustic detection biochip incorporating an array of Love wave acoustic sensors, integrated with a microfluidic module. This detection platform is combined with a micro-processor, which, alongside with magnetic beads technology and a micro-PCR module will be responsible for performing sample pre-treatment, bacteria lysis, nucleic acid purification and amplification and detection. Automated, multiscale manipulation of fluids in complex microchannel networks was combined with novel sensing principles developed by some of the partners. This system is expected to have a significant impact in food-pathogen detection by addressing for the first time a pathological condition on a global rather than germ-by-germ basis, while screening simultaneously for various pathogens. Finally, thanks to the low cost and compact technologies involved, the proposed set-up provides a competitive analytical platform for direct application in field settings.