Method for Disease Detection

About

Since there are currently no vaccines or treatments for viruses, prevention of infection is paramount. Prevention is dependent upon practices and containment procedures that limit or prevent the spread of the virus. Containment of clinically ill individuals alone is an ineffective method, as most viruses spread during the early/subclinical phase of disease. Also, some infected individuals will not get noticeably sick but will still be capable of spreading the virus. Researchers at FAU developed a microfluidic chip platform to automate the direct detection of viral DNA at point-of-care. This technology circumvents the need for a thermal cycler by replacing the rtPCR methodology with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). Additionally, in-tube detection of positive samples is made possible with the use of fluorescent dyes that complex with the DNA during LAMP amplification. The FAU technology also overcomes the need for multiple manual wash steps by using commercially available magnetic microbeads that bind to the viral DNA.