Microfluidic-Photonic Biosensor for Rapid Point-of-Care Viral RNA Quantification

This work introduces a microfluidic-photonic biosensor that combines magnetic sample preparation, isothermal amplification, and a photonic sensing platform to achieve rapid, sensitive, and scalable viral RNA detection.

Details

The device combines several advanced technologies to create a rapid, sensitive, and scalable point-of-care viral RNA detection system. It uses a disposable microfluidic cartridge with magnetic nanoparticles to extract and prepare the sample, followed by isothermal reverse-transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) for rapid amplification. The amplified product is then detected using a photonic sensing platform based on a resonant ring array, which converts the fluorescence signal into a quantitative optical readout. The compact, CMOS-compatible design enables cost-effective mass production. This approach addresses key limitations of existing methods like RT-qPCR (long turnaround time) and LAMP (non-quantitative, high false-positives).