Pathogen Bioprocessor

The threat of bioterrorism has increased the demand for advanced technologies to rapidly and accurately detect and identify numerous pathogens at the species and strain level in air, water, food and other matrices. Advanced automated instrumentation with low operating costs that can be rapidly adaptable to new pathogens or agents is required. This proposal describes rapid application of microfluidics and microchips to develop and deploy advanced sample preparation systems. In Phase I, a disposable front-end sample concentration module is developed to input milliliter volumes and concentrate to 100 microliters for input to a sample preparation module. The sample concentration module will elute the concentrated sample into the sample preparation module which will have disposable plastic microchip cartridges in a CD format. The microchips will incorporate existing micropumps and valves to move samples into chambers for reactions to process nucleic acids, proteins, and particles. Each microchip will have 12 single use bioprocessors units that also have archiving capabilities. Sample processing will be controlled by external device containing pneumatic actuators, temperature control, syringe pumps to add reagents, and sonication to disrupt spores and cells. The technology will be the basis of sample preparation and analysis systems for pathogen detection, diagnostics and biodefense.