Autonomous diagnostics by combining 3D printed passive pumps and conventional microfluidics

Rapid diagnostic testing at the site of a patient, point−of−care (POC) testing, is essential to provide healthcare when a fully equipped laboratory is not readily accessible. Especially in developing countries, suitable POC diagnostics could save millions of lives a year by early diagnosis of a number of treatable conditions identified by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO guidelines for viable POC diagnostics state the need for low−cost, disposable assays, that require minimal user−dependent steps, and that function without external pumps. This PhD project approaches this challenge in an entirely novel way and proposes 3D printing to precisely engineer the capillary wetting behavior of porous bodies. As a result, 3D printed passive microfluidic pumps will be realized that can autonomously handle the precisely timed liquid handling steps in a diagnostic assay through capillary action alone. The integration of these 3D printed pumps with conventional microfluidics will result in self-contained, WHO-compliant diagnostic tools to perform sensitive amplification−based assays.