Projects

The project aims to develop a fully integrated, automated and user-friendly platform for infectious disease diagnosis. Malaria can be treated in just 48 hours, but delayed or false diagnosis or missing a relevant alternative cause of fever may be lethal. Therefore, other diseases with similar clinical symptoms will be investigated too. DiscoGnosis will integrate micro, nano, and bio components into a multi-functional point-of-care platform, performing simultaneously protein and genetic analysis to timely and accurately identify major pathogenic causes of fever, enabling proper treatment. A foil-based centrifugal microfluidic lab-on-a-chip cartridge, core of the platform, will integrate monolithically all necessary unit operations for raw sample treatment (blood-to-result regime), from sample collection and injection, to plasma separation, DNA extraction and purification. Low-cost production, scalable from prototype to batch fabrication (with proper quality control, calibration and standards specifications) will render the platform affordable to end users, even in developing countries; high sensitivity detection and multiplexity will rely on magnetic microparticles and quantum dot technologies, supported by dedicated optics development; rapid analysis (~30 min) will be achieved via isothermal DNA amplification protocols. The entire system will be validated in a controlled field test with standardized samples and by end-users in high-risk developing countries through partners’ established contacts. Data management will be implemented to allow rational organization in the field and to reinforce the “shield” of Europe against such diseases, as more than 30,000 malaria cases are reported annually among returning European tourists. This generic point-of-care platform can be applied to many diseases (eg, cancer, cardiovascular, Alzheimer) by only changing its bio-components. The strong SME participation indicates the high commercialization potential of the project.