Multisense chip: continuously working air monitoring system: An integrated system for the detection of airborne biological pathogens on molecular and immunological level

Abstract

Permanent monitoring of airborne bacteria is an essential tool to ensure clean and safe environment in locations such as hospital surrounding, metro stations, airports, or for big events like international sport events. Lab-on-a-chip systems are very promising approaches for a decentralized continuous pathogen monitoring. The overall system presented here consisted of a microtiter plate sized consumable and respective instrument allowing for the detection of airborne biological pathogens. The target pathogens to be detected were Yersinia pestis, Francisella tularensis, Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Brucella melitensis, Brucella abortis, Coxiella burnetti, and Bacillus anthracis. Important to stress is that the technical platform can be easily extended to further pathogens. Apart from the implementation of the full assay process from on-chip pathogen trapping to detection, two main achievements were made: On one hand, the surface of the immunoassay can be used over a longer period of continuous monitoring of negative results despite being flushed permanently. For the case of positive results, the system will trigger an alert and the chip will be disposed. On the other hand, a PCR protocol in respect to temperature and cycle timing was developed allowing running no less than eight target PCRs with the same protocol.

Recent Advances on Bioaerosol Collection and Detection in Microfluidic Chips

“…However, some unfavorable factors have greatly limit their practical applications, including the consumption of a large number of reagents, the requirement of expensive equipment and well-trained technicians, or the limited accuracy and stability. Microfluidic chips have attracted increasing attention for detection of the pathogens in the bioaerosols with their excellent characteristics, such as the lower cost due to their minimal use of samples and reagents, the easier extension due to their simple operations and procedures, and the higher performance due to their precise control on air and fluidic flows. , They are often used with various pathogen detection methods, including molecular biological assays, immunological assays, and others. ,,, Some emerging bioaerosol detection methods based on microfluidic chips were compared in Table S2. The microfluidic adenosine triphosphate (ATP) -based bioluminescence assay is the fastest, which can complete the bioaerosol detection in a few minutes.…”

Detecting Biothreat Agents: From Current Diagnostics to Developing Sensor Technologies

“…Other efforts represent more commercially viable approaches. An integrated microfluidic system with the capabilities of continuous air monitoring using both ELISA and PCR from ChipShop GmbH in Germany, has shown positive detection capabilities for B. anthracis , Brucella abortis , B. melitensis , Burkholderia mallei , Burkholderia pseudomallei , Coxiella burnetii , Francisella tularensis , and Yersinia pestis . − A second such device consists of a 4-plex optical microchip array named the SpectroSens (Stratophase Ltd.), which demonstrated the simultaneous detection of B. anthracis spores (5 × 10 7 CFU/mL), F. tularensis (2 × 10 8 CFU/mL), Vaccinia virus (10 7 PFU/mL), and ricin toxin (250 ng/mL), showing the potential biochemical diversity available to multiplexed targeted analysis . The latter approach used an optical waveguide array, in which antibodies were able to capture the target analytes in a label-free system and which resulted in detectable changes to the refractive index; see Figure .…”