Research & Development
Lab-on-a-Chip | SNPs | Other R&D Projects | R&D Team |
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| Current molecular diagnostic methods are limited by time taken to complete analysis, reagents required and skilled technicians to perform the experiment. The technology is out there to assist the medical world with rapid diagnostic tools that offer high throughput collection of information. However, they have yet to find a way into the doctor’s office. |
 | | | | The world is eagerly awaiting lab-on-a-chip (LOAC) technology to deliver its full potential, bringing many promised benefits in the field of medical diagnostics.
DNA microarray technologies have been realized in genetic analysis, although in the clinical setting, practical applications of LOAC and Point-Of-Care (POC) diagnostics are proving to be highly elusive. | |
| These applications are a hot topic among researchers, however existing commercialized biochip products are self limiting and mostly aimed at high-end analytical tools. Many POC applications would benefit from a simplistic technology platform, offering a rapid and sensitive Yes/No diagnosis. Accelerating DNA hybridization is vital to reducing the overall process cycle-time. |
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| Electric Field Assisted Diagnostic chip (EFADchip) technology leverages the LOAC platform and was developed as a result of optimizing the device configuration for low cost and readily available materials and methods. Aimed at rapid POC diagnostics, EFADchip is fabricated by common photolithographic techniques and utilizes a dielectric material that when attached to an active electrode, a strong charge separation within the material occurs. The resulting positive charge accumulation at the reactive site surface accelerates DNA hybridization by attracting negatively charged DNA strands. The cost and availability of silicon dioxide makes this the ideal commercial choice for the dielectric material used in EFADchip technology. The results are quantifiable by comparing hybridized to un-hybridized “spots”, thus leading to the detection of a positive result. |
 | Figure shows an example EFADchip readout and comparison of spots to record a signal for the detection of biological samples. The prevalence of diseases is increasing and so is the demand for rapid POC diagnostics. Existing problems with DNA hybridization in disease detection diagnostics have been addressed with EFADchip. Hybridization times were dramatically reduced and an effective detection method demonstrated. Importantly, there is no requirement to use expensive fluorescence equipment with this technology. For further development, EFADchip aims to provide multiplex detection for a combination of diseases using a simple-to-operate process requiring minimal training. |
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"To revolutionize the practice of clinical diagnostics, providing effective platforms for point-of-care
applications focused on personalized medicine and pre-emptive surveillance of emerging pathogens and diseases." |
