Avian Flu Lab-On-A-Chip Device

Researchers at three Singapore-based research institutes — the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), and Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have successfully developed a miniaturized device that can be used to detect the avian flu (H5N1) virus. If successfully commercialized, this device could be deployed in affected regions for pre-emptive surveillance of nascent avian flu epidemic. According to project leader and lead author of the Nature Medicine publication, IBN Research Scientist Dr. Juergen Pipper, “With our device, medical or humanitarian aid workers would be able to detect the presence of the H5N1 virus directly from throat swab samples on-site in less than half an hour.” With early warning, a potential avian flu epidemic can be averted. Avian influenza is now entrenched in Asia, with sporadic human infections resulting from either direct contact with infected birds or limited human-to-human transmission. Globalization and seasonal avian migration patterns have resulted in the disease spreading rapidly to other parts of the world.

The device comprises a platform developed by IBN which uses magnetic force to manipulate individual droplets containing silica-coated magnetic particles. “The novelty of our method lies in the way that the droplet itself becomes a pump, valve, mixer, solid-phase extractor and real-time thermocycler. Complex biochemical tasks can thus be processed in a fashion similar to that of a traditional biological laboratory on a miniature scale,” explained Pipper. The all-in-one droplet-based device is superior to commercially available solutions as it integrates the entire workflow of viral RNA isolation, purification, preconcentration, and detection. Tests have shown that IBN’s platform is as sensitive as, and around 10 times faster than available tests, yet it could potentially be 40 to 100 times cheaper.

Note that IMCB co-author Masafumi Inoue is also the leading inventor for the H5N1 detection kit which is currently being used in hospitals, and that GIS coauthor Dr. Lisa Ng was a co-inventor in another H5N1 detection kit using GIS’s proprietary nucleic acid diagnostic primers.

For intigued investors: The lab-on-a-chip system developed by IBN can also be adapted for other infectious diseases such as SARS, HIV, and hepatitis B, by extracting nucleic acids from other body fluids such as blood, urine or saliva. “An increasing number of magnetic particle-based biochemical kits are commercially available to process cells, RNA, DNA and proteins. We envision that our droplet-based system will be an attractive diagnostic platform, especially for decentralized environmental, biological or medical testing,” said Pipper. IBN has filed 5 patent applications on this device.

-read more in Juergen Pipper, “Catching Bird Flu in a Droplet,” Nature Medicine (23 September 2007) (doi:10.1038/nm1634)