University of California

Omai Garner

Aydogan Ozcan

Dino Di Carlo

Steve Wei Feng

Derek Tseng

Zachary S Ballard

Bingen Cortazar

Hector E Munoz

Carson Riche

Brandon Berg

Hyou-Arm Joung

Haydar Ozkan

A multiplexed vertical flow serodiagnostic testing device for diseases such as Lyme disease includes one or more multi-piece cassettes that include vertical stacks of functionalized porous layers therein. A bottom piece of the cassette includes a sensing membrane with a plurality of spatially multiplexed immunoreaction spots or locations. Top pieces are used to deliver sample and/or buffer solutions along with antibody-conjugated nanoparticles for binding with the immunoreaction spots or locations. A colorimetric signal is generated by the nanoparticles captured on the sensing membrane containing disease-specific antigens. The sensing membrane is imaged by a cost-effective portable reader device. The images captured by the reader device are subject to image processing and analysis to generate positive (+) or negative (−) indication for the sample. A concentration of one or more biomarkers may also be generated. The testing device is rapid, simple, inexpensive, and allows for simultaneous measurement of multiple antibodies and/or antigens making it an ideal point-of-care platform for disease diagnosis.

Serodiagnostic testing device and system for early-stage Lyme disease using a multiplexed immunoassay

A method of performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) on a sample uses a reader device that mounts on a mobile phone having a camera. A microtiter plate containing wells preloaded with the bacteria-containing sample, growth medium, and drugs of differing concentrations is loaded into the reader device. The wells are illuminated using an array of illumination sources contained in the reader device. Images of the wells are acquired with the camera of the mobile phone. In one embodiment, the images are transmitted to a separate computing device for processing to classify each well as turbid or not turbid and generating MIC values and a susceptibility characterization for each drug in the panel based on the turbidity classification of the array of wells. The MIC values and the susceptibility characterizations for each drug are transmitted or returned to the mobile phone for display thereon.

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing device and method for use with portable electronic device

An optical readout method for detecting a precipitate (e.g., a precipitate generated from the LAMP reaction) contained within a droplet includes generating a plurality of droplets, at least some which have a precipitate contained therein. The droplets are imaged using a brightfield imaging device. The image is subject to image processing using image processing software executed on a computing device. Image processing isolates individual droplets in the image and performs feature detection within the isolated droplets. Keypoints and information related thereto are extracted from the detected features within the isolated droplets. The keypoints are subject to a clustering operation to generate a plurality of visual 'words.' The word frequency obtained for each droplet is input into a trained machine learning droplet classifier, wherein the trained machine learning droplet classifier classifies each droplet as positive for the precipitate or negative for the precipitate.

Label-free digital brightfield analysis of nucleic acid amplification

A micro-plate reader for use with a portable electronic device having a camera includes an opto-mechanical attachment configured to attach/detach to the portable electronic device and includes an array of illumination sources. A slot in the opto-mechanical attachment is dimensioned to receive an optically transparent plate containing an array of wells. Optical fibers are located in the opto-mechanical attachment and transmit light from each well to a reduced size header having, wherein the fiber array in the header has a cross-sectional area that is &#x2264;10&#xd7; the cross-sectional area of the wells in the plate. A lens located in the opto-mechanical attachment transmits light from the header fibers to the camera. Software executed on the portable electronic device or other computer is used to process the images to generate qualitative clinical determinations and/or quantitative index values for the separate wells.

Micro-plate reader for ELISA testing

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Culver City, CA, United States of America

Omai Garner