Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

Biography

Biography: Delfina C Domínguez

Abstract

Pertussis is the only vaccine-preventable infection that is still endemic in the US and worldwide. Despite high vaccination coverage in many countries, Bordetella pertussis continues to circulate. The purpose of this research is to develop and validate a low-cost, instrument-free, paper-based microfluidic point of care device (POCD) for rapid, diagnosis of pertussis. Our hypothesis is that the integration of paper-based microfluidic technology with DNA testing can provide a fast and accurate diagnosis that can be used in various venues such as medical offices, schools, and in the field. Our instrument-free detection method comprises a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/paper hybrid microfluidic system integrated with DNA amplification. The system has been created consisting of 3 layers. The top PDMS layer is for reagent delivery, and the middle PDMS layer contains multiple wells for DNA amplification. A piece of paper is inserted in each well to pre-store DNA primers. Our instrument-free system is able to detect specifically B. pertussis successfully, from both isolated organisms and clinical samples. The detection is by fluorescence using a portable UV light pen. The degree of fluorescence can be easily differentiated between the positive and negative controls. We have tested 100 clinical samples and our results are 100% sensitive and 96% specific with an overall agreement of 98% compared to real-time PCR test results. The impact of this research is broad. The POCD has great potential for the quick diagnosis of a broad range of infectious diseases and other applications such as food and environmental analyses.